IHTBN 10

Chapter: 10

It was almost 9 p.m., but there were still plenty of people in the plaza.

Since all the entertainment facilities were located here, it was only natural.

I began cleaning diligently, starting with the less crowded areas.

I wiped fingerprints from the glass, picked up trash, and mopped the floors.

From time to time, Dwarfs appeared and helped with the cleaning. Despite being much smaller than me, they worked several times faster than I did, making them extremely helpful.

The work itself was simple, but because the interior was so enormous, even making one complete round took a couple of hours.

After finishing one round of cleaning, most of the employees had returned to their rooms in preparation for the next day.

Only a few employees whose next day was a holiday, along with some people who had forgotten about their work and were simply playing around, remained.

I let out a deep sigh as I looked at an employee sprawled across the floor, completely drunk from the amount of alcohol he had consumed at the bar.

Night work was relatively easier than day work, but dealing with drunk people was somewhat troublesome.

Especially when you were a woman, because there were always men everywhere who hit on women regardless of their age, making things even more troublesome.

‘You never know when or where an Anomaly might appear, yet they stubbornly keep drinking and hitting on people. In some ways, they’re pretty amazing.’

After helping the employee, who was rolling around together with his vomit, all the way to the elevator, my arms and legs were trembling.

Maybe helping someone bigger than me had been too much.

“Phew…”

I sat down on one of the chairs placed in the corner of the elevator and rubbed my aching legs while catching my breath.

As I was doing so, several Dwarfs appeared from somewhere and passed in front of me while giggling.

One of them approached me and pressed my leg with its tiny hands.

“Oh my. Are you giving me a massage?”

The Dwarf giggled at my question.

Dwarfs understood what we said and showed goodwill toward us, but they never actually answered questions.

“Thank you. I feel better thanks to you.”

The Dwarf giving me a massage did not cause any meaningful change.

Still, it had helped me, so I should at least thank it.

When I bowed my head in gratitude, the Dwarf that had been kneading my leg blinked its eyes before giving me a bright smile.

Then it raised its thin arm and pointed in one direction.

Without giving it much thought, I raised my head and looked where the Dwarf was pointing.

There was a lattice door there.

I blinked my eyes just as the Dwarf had.

‘…Was there a door there?’

The lattice door, which I had no idea when it had appeared, was located in the hallway leading to the elevator.

As far as I remembered, there had been neither a door nor even a wall in that location.

Then what exactly was that door that had suddenly appeared in midair?

I spent a moment absentmindedly asking myself questions before realizing a beat too late that the door was the escaped specimen Eunwoo had mentioned.

I shot to my feet.

The Dwarfs that had been around me moments ago had already disappeared without a trace.

‘When a door appears, don’t approach it. Run away.’

Recalling the warning from the head of the cleaning team, I immediately headed toward the hallway in the opposite direction from the door.

I wanted to run as fast as I could, but the leg I had injured in the accident hurt particularly badly today.

Damn it.

If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have helped that drunk employee.

Knowing that the escaped specimen was behind me made me anxious and caused me to hurry.

Suppressing my impatience by force, I walked briskly to put as much distance as possible between myself and the door.

Thankfully, the door did not follow me, and I was able to get away safely.

I glanced over my shoulder.

The lattice door was clearly visible beneath the pale LED lights.

An old-fashioned lattice door that looked completely out of place in the residential building, which was comparable to a five-star hotel.

Without taking my eyes off the door, I activated the call bell I had kept in my pocket. Security team employees appeared from somewhere and approached the door one by one.

“I’ve finished making the report… May I return to my duties?”

“Of course. The HR department will contact you separately regarding the reward for your report. Thank you for your cooperation.”

‘Huh? There’s a reward?’

That was unexpected information.

I wonder what they’ll give me?

Encountering an Anomaly had been frightening, but that was that, and a reward was a reward.

Was it too materialistic of me to feel inexplicably happy at the thought of receiving something?

‘Even so, I’m safe physically and mentally, and I’m getting a reward on top of that. There’s no way I could feel bad about it.’

I had also finished making my report.

The elevator wasn’t part of my assigned area, so there was no reason for me to stay there.

I left without hesitation, returned to my work area, and continued the work I hadn’t finished.

Even though I had only been away for a short while, there was already plenty that needed to be cleaned up around me.

As I continued working diligently, the clock chimed to announce midnight.

Several researchers who had been drinking while sitting on the open terrace flinched at the heavy sound of the grandfather clock and got up from their seats.

‘It’s already this late.’

From 12:30 a.m. until 2 a.m., we were given a break.

It was an awkward time to go clean somewhere else…

After thinking about it for a moment, I began helping the bar employees clean the area around the open terrace.

It wasn’t an area assigned to the cleaning team, but since I didn’t feel like going somewhere else, helping out while I was there didn’t seem like a bad idea.

After successfully killing some time, I confirmed that the large clock was pointing at the numbers 12 and 6 before heading off to take my break.

Unlike the day shift, the entire night shift had the same break period, so I saw several employees wearing the same uniform on the way to the break room.

“Seoyoung. You’re here. Nothing happened, right?”

Jisu, one of the senior employees and one of the few female employees, greeted me warmly.

“I found the door.”

“Yeah, I’m glad nothing happened… What? The door?”

“Yes. The door that you and the head of the cleaning team told us about during roll call really appeared.”

“No, uh… What? Wait a second. You actually saw that door?!”

When I reported finding the door, her eyes widened comically.

“Yes.”

“What do you mean? Seoyoung, you really saw the door?”

“Hey, Lee Seoyoung. Did you really see an Anomaly?”

“Yes. I saw it.”

“How are you unharmed?! How did you resist the urge? What about the security team? Did you report it?”

Although it had been discussed during roll call, perhaps they had never actually expected the door to appear, because the attention of the employees walking nearby instantly turned toward me.

I calmly answered their barrage of questions, but the employees asked again with frustrated expressions.

“Lee Seoyoung, are you sure you really saw the door? Why are you so calm?”

“Uh… Is there any reason I shouldn’t be calm?”

“You saw an Anomaly. An Anomaly that could eat someone at any moment. If the head of the cleaning team told you to run away immediately, that means you could have died.”

“Ah. Well… I’ve almost died a few times recently. But it didn’t feel as dangerous as the head of the cleaning team made it sound. I didn’t particularly feel any urge to open the door, either.”

“It’s a relief that you’re safe, but…”

I could feel one of the seniors looking at me as if wondering, ‘What kind of person is this?’

Perhaps because it was much less impressive than I had imagined from the stories, I hardly felt as though I had been in any danger.

If we were talking about danger, the eyeball fly from my first day had been much worse.

‘Maybe I’m not as impressed because I saw that thing first?’

As I tilted my head in confusion, Jisu continued asking questions.

“More importantly, Seoyoung. What was that door like? Where did it appear?”

“It was in the hallway beside the elevator leading to the lodging building. The entrance to the hallway had been blocked by a wall, and then a lattice door appeared.”

“Did it appear immediately after you got there?”

“Hmm… I’m not sure about that. I didn’t notice it, but the Dwarfs showed it to me.”

“The Dwarfs?”

“Yes. They appeared while I was taking a short break after taking a drunk employee to the elevator. They showed me the door and then disappeared. Come to think of it, I was able to stay safe thanks to them. Should I thank them somehow…?”

Several senior employees, including Jisu, looked at me as though they couldn’t understand what I was saying.

Hmm. Why were they making those expressions?

As I tilted my head and looked at the seniors, one of the new employees standing nearby stared blankly at the wall and asked,

“…Senior, you saw the door, but you didn’t feel the urge to open it?”

“No.”

“You really didn’t feel any urge at all?”

“No.”

“Even though it’s right next to you like this?”

“…What?”

The moment the new employee finished speaking, not only I, but all the employees around us simultaneously turned their eyes toward the wall.

Until just moments ago, it had clearly been an ordinary hallway wall.

But now, a lattice-patterned door had appeared on that wall.