Chapter 2
Everyone dreams.
However, no one knows the true power that dreams possess.
Because there are no limits.
……
“You want me to sleep right now?”
Until now, anyone who saw me falling asleep was startled and tried to wake me up.
On the contrary, there hadn’t been a single person who encouraged me to sleep now.
“Right now.”
The words of the woman wearing the pure white hanbok sounded like a command.
Her words ringing in my ears amidst my confused mind were cold.
Cold, yet somewhere.
I felt them piercing deep into the core of my heart.
Why was that?
Why now of all times.
Had I really become sleepy?
It was then.
She approached and whispered something to me.
“…….”
Around the time my memory grew hazy.
I heard her words as if they were grazing past.
They were words that gave me goosebumps in an instant.
Without even a chance to respond, I lost consciousness.
……
How long did I sleep?
When I woke up dazed, it was around the time the sun was setting.
“Huh?”
I was lying on the wooden porch; it seemed I really had fallen asleep at her house.
“Ah, man.”
I mean.
Looking at the time on my smartphone, it meant I had been asleep for over six hours.
“Excuse me.”
I tried calling out to her.
The one who urged me to sleep right away even though she knew I had narcolepsy.
No, I looked for where that woman who had commanded me was.
“Excuse me?”
It was quiet all around.
The flower bed she was tending was already tidied up.
As the setting sun shone like twilight, the white flowers in the bed were being stained red.
“Am I the only one here?”
It was silent.
It was quiet enough to feel deadly.
“Hmm.”
I thought I should return home before the flowers in the bed were completely stained by the darkness.
My whole body felt eerie.
For some reason, it felt like it would be scary to stay here.
“What a strange day.”
Trudge, trudge.
While returning empty-handed, an uneasy feeling kept lingering.
“And she was a strange woman.”
That woman with long straight hair wearing a pure white hanbok.
She kept weighing on my mind.
Her atmosphere was unique, but hard to describe.
She was a great beauty, but she had a calm yet alluring air about her.
At the same time, her eyes held a cold and icy gaze.
Someone whose inner thoughts were unreadable.
I don’t even know why she’s looking for someone with narcolepsy.
“Forget it, I don’t know anymore.”
Holding onto that uneasy feeling, I headed straight home.
By the path home that was always familiar.
Slide.
That the alleyway I walked through had changed a bit.
That it was different from before.
I passed through without noticing in the slightest.
“Phew.”
It was a tiring day despite having slept a lot.
Maybe because it was unsettling.
Maybe it’s because I have a lot on my mind.
After entering the apartment, I stood in front of the elevator.
“The 24th floor, huh.”
The elevator was at the very top.
While waiting for the elevator to slowly descend, I didn't think about anything.
I was just in a state of mind of wanting to go home and waiting for this strange day to end.
Whirrr.
24F.
20F.
…
17F.
12F.
…
9F.
It kept coming down and then stopped.
4F.
The elevator stayed here for a long time.
“…….”
At first, I didn’t think much of it.
But.
It stayed stopped on the 4th floor for too long.
“What’s this?”
The elevator wasn’t coming down.
This had never happened before.
Today was a strange day.
Things that had never happened before were continuing to occur.
I was starting to get a strange feeling.
Even the light indicating 4F blinked several times.
This, too, was a sight I had never seen before.
Whir.
The elevator moved again.
Was it just my imagination?
It felt eerie, unlike usual.
It felt as if I were alone in the darkness.
Whether it was discomfort.
Or an ill omen.
I was so exhausted today that I couldn't even distinguish between the two.
1F.
The elevator doors opened slowly.
Then, suddenly, an unknown voice grazed past.
『The domain of ** is being transitioned.』
What?
I should have noticed even then.
That strange sound and the sense of dissonance felt from the elevator....
If I had known.
If I had known sooner.
‘If I had known it was a choice that would change my life.’
I would have thought twice about getting on this elevator.
Whir.
A housewife and a child, an elderly man, a middle-aged man, and me.
The doors of the elevator carrying five people began to close slowly.
“Wait a second!”
At the last moment, a female student ran over and got on too.
“Thank you.”
Thus, an elevator with six people.
It was a normal day like any other.
Could it be that my feeling of the elevator doors closing more slowly than usual wasn't just an illusion?
I thought it just looked that way because I was exhausted today.
Because it was such a tiring day.
“…….”
The people pressed the floors they lived on.
I also unconsciously pressed 21F.
The elevator began to move bit by bit.
As if a giant were lifting its heavy body, it went up slowly and sluggishly.
Whir.
1F.
The elevator stopped before it could even go up.
“Huh?”
It wasn’t actually common for an apartment elevator to break down and stop.
Especially in the middle of the night.
“Is it a breakdown?”
Everyone looked flustered, but this was the first floor.
Even though it should have been as simple as opening the doors and walking out.
But the elevator doors wouldn't open.
“Is the door broken too?”
The people looked at each other with panicked expressions.
Everyone took a moment to grasp the situation and repeatedly pressed the open button, but the elevator remained silent.
I pressed the emergency bell as if I had no other choice.
“Hello?”
There was no answer.
Crackle.
Along with a strange mechanical sound, a bizarre voice flowed out.
It was a voice as chilling as iron filings.
[What is the matter?]
“The elevator doors won't open right now.”
[Is that so?]
A silence followed.
A moment later.
[I know.]
What?
A strange answer came back.
[That six people are trapped in the elevator.]
You know?
Well, the CCTV is up there.
“Can you see us on the screen? Then please send someone here. Get us out.”
[That is impossible.]
“Pardon?”
[Entering that elevator was your choice, and being able to leave safely is also your choice.]
I didn't understand what was being said.
“Who the hell are you? Are you joking? Let us out quickly.”
The man next to me flared up and shouted toward the speaker.
Perhaps he’d had a drink; the nauseating smell of soju wafted from him.
[Joking? If you want to believe that, then believe it.]
A short silence.
Then, a long answer followed.
[You have been invited to the 1444th game.]
What on earth was this?
I hadn't been able to understand anything for a while now.
“I can’t listen to this anymore.”
Smartphone.
The housewife took her phone out of her pocket, but there was no signal.
Beside her, the child was trembling slightly while looking at their mother.
“I can’t get a signal.”
“What?”
Everyone checked their phones in a panic.
Indeed, there was no signal.
To not be able to get a communication signal in an apartment in Seoul.
It was impossible.
This won't do.
Thump, thump.
“Hello! Is anyone out there?”
The man pounded on the elevator door.
He shouted for help, but no answer came back.
“What the. Is no one there?”
This is an apartment.
Even if it was an old building, it was a high-rise apartment where many people lived.
But to think that no one would respond like this?
No matter how extreme individualism has become, people don't ignore calls for rescue.
Furthermore, there is a security guard on the first floor.
I had just greeted him as I walked in.
“The guard?”
But they can’t hear even when the door is kicked this hard?
A strange feeling set in bit by bit.
Here.
Maybe.
“Has something changed?”
My words spread in all directions like a small wave.
It was around the time everyone realized that what was happening now was absolutely not normal.
Words that turned that into a certainty.
Words that acknowledged it as reality.
Like throwing a stone to create gentle ripples on a lakeshore.
Small changes were continuing intensely.
[Have you calmed down a bit?]
The voice from the speaker was heard again.
“You punk. What the hell is going on?”
[From now on, I will guide you through the situation.]
The voice coming from the elevator speaker.
It had become calmer than before, and thus, more eerie.
[You are uninvited guests of this elevator.]
What?
The six people looked at each other.
[Listen carefully from now on. You must keep the following precautions in mind. I will tell you the only way to get out of here.]
Words failed me.
I had to listen to the instructions of the suspicious man coming from the elevator's emergency bell.
[From now on, the elevator will move floor by floor. The elevator will open at every floor. And you can only get off once.]
Get off only once?
[Once you get off, you can never get back on the elevator. If the place you get off at is the correct answer, you escape safely. If you get off on the wrong floor...]
He trailed off.
It was even more so because the following answer was shocking.
[You die.]
It was by no means a warning.
It was a message informing them of a cruel rule.
“…….”
No one could answer.
Because that announcement message, heard in a metallic voice, didn't sound like a joke at all.
Is it real?
Or.
Whir.
[The elevator is moving.]
As if not waiting for an answer.
Without giving a moment to think, the elevator heartlessly moved upward.
As if pulling up a heavy weight connected to the heart, it began to rise slowly.
“…….”
People's eyes turned toward the next floor.
2F.
A young couple raising a puppy and a young man living alone live on the 2nd floor. Since they mostly use the stairs, I had never pressed the 2nd floor in the elevator, nor had the elevator doors ever opened at the 2nd floor.
But now.
That very thing happened.
Eerie.
Close to terror.
The people, including myself, all had their faces turn pale as if their minds had frozen.
“Now. What was that announcement?”
If the information just announced was true.
People had to get off at one place.
Whir.
And finally.
The elevator, which had been rising slowly, stopped at 2F.
[2nd floor.]
It was an announcement that would usually be ignored, but now it was different.
Was it because of the dim interior lighting?
The message indicating 2F shimmered as if blinking.
And.
The next words were heard.
[The doors are opening.]
The firmly closed elevator doors.
The doors that had absolutely not opened on the 1st floor were now slowly opening.
The elevator doors opened very late; the speed of opening was noticeably slow, to the point where everyone felt a sense of dissonance.
Whirrrr.
Everyone was aware of this terrifying atmosphere.
It was similar to the feeling in a movie after being kidnapped by a killer and struggling to survive.
That spine-chilling sense of horror.
Cold sweat drenching the entire body.
Then, someone spoke.
“An urban legend?”
An old ghost story that flows like a legend through the city.
Just like an urban legend.
A place with no way to contact the outside.
Right now, they were inside an elevator that wasn't moving.
To survive, one had to make the right choice.
[Those who wish to get off, please come out now.]
Finally, the elevator doors opened.
Slowly, the sight of the 2nd floor began to be revealed.
And everyone got goosebumps at the sight unfolding before their eyes.
“Ah...!”
There had been a part of them hoping all of this was a joke or a lie.
It was like a single remaining shred of hope, but the sight before them felt like everything was being shattered to pieces.
Now, they knew for certain.
‘That today is the absolute worst day.’