NOVEL NEXT Chapter 61: Heavenly Ordeal (3)
Nayu disappeared.
No matter how much I knocked on the door, there was no response.
“Nayu!!! Nayu!!!”
No matter how loudly I shouted, Nayu did not appear.
Nayu was gone.
The child, who was so naive that she would follow anyone who offered her candy, had vanished.
This was practically the same as a child abduction.
I searched for her all day, but she was nowhere to be found.
Finally, I asked Jamsuni, and she shook her head and said,
“She must have gone back home. She is so gullible that she was probably deceived.”“Home?”
“Don’t you know? You beat them up last time. The Heavenly Ordeal Sect. Nayu’s new family is there.”
The Heavenly Ordeal Sect,
Those TS fetishists.
No, those trashy bastards.
Those subhuman scumbags took my true master Nayu?!
When? How?
But that wasn’t the important thing right now.
The most important thing was that I had to get Nayu back.
I found out the location of the Heavenly Ordeal Sect through the Anomaly Response Headquarters. It was on the 52nd floor of a mixed-use building in the Central District of Seoul. Living in such a nice place, so undeservedly.
I immediately boarded a bus heading there.
****
“What is the will of the heavens?”
Nagu looked at Nayu, who had changed into a white hanbok. Seeing Nayu’s forlorn smile, Nagu nodded.
“Humans are the heavens, so the will of humans is the will of the heavens.”
Nagu, the leader of the Heavenly Ordeal Sect, stroked Nayu and then electrified her hand.
As a shaman who resonates with lightning, she unleashed her power.
As she etched the will into the heavens through lightning, Nayu, the shaman of the heavens, understood it as the will of the heavens.
Nayu bowed her head in respect.
Watching this, Nagu murmured,
“Prepare Nayu.”
“As you command.”
The attendants took Nayu away, leaving Nagu alone. Alone, Nagu turned on the monitor in the room.
The monitor showed the entrance of an elevator. Nagu had long heard that Yoo Hajin was coming this way.
“No matter how great Yoo Hajin is.”
Nagu smirked unpleasantly. As she laughed, the wrinkles of the middle-aged woman, hidden by makeup, began to distort.
“He will never reach this floor.”
Yoo Hajin, seeing that elevator, would have no choice but to give up on Nayu.
But it didn’t matter if he didn’t give up.
He would be devoured by the infinite elevator anyway.
“Come, fool.”
Nagu sipped her mixed coffee and watched the monitor.
****
Everything about the elevator was ordinary except for the buttons.
In the corner of that elevator stood a man.
The man took deep breaths, holding back his tears.
He regretted getting on this elevator.
To think he did something so dangerous just to get some trinket or relic.
“A dimension-hopping elevator, huh.”
It was indeed a dimension-hopping elevator. But the dimensions it arrived at were usually ones you could only call hell.
“It was just an elevator to hell.”
He had already lost four companions.
The man bowed his head, reminiscing about that time.
The first companion was lost on a floor that looked like a club. It was a floor where many people were dancing joyfully to EDM music.
Since it didn’t seem dangerous, they moved according to the manual.
While doing so, they stole items. Wallets from the dancing people, or objects causing abnormal phenomena.
“Wait a minute, these people.”
At that moment, one of the companions noticed something. He saw something faint on the arms and legs of the dancing people.
Looking closely, it was thread. Everyone dancing there was a sophisticated puppet.
However, a few of the puppets emitted a rotting stench or a foul odor. It was as if they had originally been living people who were captured by the strings and forced to dance until they died.
One of the female puppets spoke.
The female puppet spoke while crying.
“Please, untie these strings. I can’t feel my limbs, but I’m still dancing. Continuously. Continuously.”
She wasn’t a puppet.
She was a person caught by the strings.
“I only came because a club opened up...”
As soon as they heard the woman’s words, the companions ran. But due to the sudden attack by the puppets, they inevitably lost one of their companions.
The downcast companions cheered up when they saw their loot. To make money in a world gone mad, they too had to go mad.
“Still, this floor was relatively safe. It was worth it.”
Promising to share the loot with the lost companion’s family, they aimed for the next floor.
According to the manual, here were the ways to avoid dangerous floors:
===
116. When multiple people use the elevator.
When multiple people use the elevator, it is best for one user to hold the open button to ensure safety. If the elevator door doesn’t open immediately when you arrive at a dangerous floor, it could be problematic.
235. When it’s hard to determine danger based on the appearance of the floor.
First, deploy a small creature onto the floor to check if it can survive. Canaries are recommended for this purpose.
492. When choosing the next floor (3)
If you want to go to another floor using this elevator, avoid pressing the current floor’s number. If you press the current floor’s number again, the floor will start to observe you.
541. When you need to press the close button.
Only press the close button in an emergency.
Do not press the close button if it’s not an emergency.
Pressing the close button in a non-emergency situation may result in being trapped in the elevator forever.
542. When you hear a voice in the elevator.
If the elevator announces the floor number or starts talking to you, ignore it thoroughly. Responding even once will take you to that floor.
666. When the floor numbers change rapidly.
As soon as the elevator arrives, get off quickly.
If you stay, you will fall along with the elevator.
············
·········
···
===
And as the elevator suddenly moved rapidly, the companions prepared to get off immediately.
‘Wait, wasn’t there a manual that said one person should stay in the elevator?’
In an instant, the man realized the strangeness of manual 666.
But by then it was too late.
Two of his companions had already gotten off at that floor.
They got off immediately, following the manual. And then they saw the floor. The floor the floor the floor the floor the floor the floor the floor the floor.
One of the companions, smiling, ran toward the floor, while the other, crying, put a gun in his mouth and pulled the trigger.
And so the man was left alone.
Alone, the man had no strength left to move.
Meanwhile, the elevator display continued to show strange floor numbers like 1194& or *>/?!.
Sometimes it would show bizarre messages like “get off now” or “those things are waiting”.
Letters appeared on the display, which was only supposed to show numbers. Half-insane, the man shook his head and opened the elevator manual.
The manual for the infinite elevator was a thick book, almost like an encyclopedia. The man hurriedly tried to find the section about when Korean characters appear on the display.
“Found it.”
He quickly read the manual entry.
===
1632. When Korean characters appear on the display.
The display is talking to you.
Listen to it listen to it believe it
===
After reading that, the man could no longer move. He just shivered and regretted getting on this elevator.
At that moment, the door opened.
There stood a man.
“This building looks fancy, but why is the elevator like this?”
****
“This building looks fancy, but why is the elevator like this?”
I said, not hiding my annoyance.
These Heavenly Ordeal sect bastards,
everything related to them pisses me off.
Living in an expensive building in a nice neighborhood, but not maintaining the elevator? Just look at it. The elevator wasn’t even managed by security, and it seemed like a homeless person was living here.
I tried to avoid the homeless person and pressed the button.
Did they say the Heavenly Ordeal Sect was on the 52nd floor?
I read it on the internet, so it must be accurate.
“Wait, don’t press that button recklessly!!!”
Suddenly, the homeless man shouted.
Startled, I asked.
“Why, why?”
“This is no ordinary elevator. It’s an A-grade paranormal phenomenon occasionally found in buildings. The infinite elevator. You can’t get to where you want by just pressing the button.”
“What?”
What? I was busy trying to deal with the Heavenly Ordeal sect, and now I was caught in a paranormal phenomenon? But I had already accidentally pressed the button for the 2nd floor.
“Wait, I told you not to press it recklessly!!!”
Ding— The elevator arrived on the 2nd floor without any issues. As I got off and looked around, it was indeed the 2nd floor of that building.
“Damn it, you scared me for nothing, old man.”
“W-What? Why is this elevator working so smoothly all of a sudden? This can’t be right.”
“It’s just a regular elevator, come on.”
Grumbling, I pressed the button for the 52nd floor.
“No!!! Manual 492! You can’t press the same floor number twice!!!”
Of course, I ignored the homeless man’s frantic warnings. He seemed mentally unstable, so I thought it best to humor him.
“Why is this door taking so long to close?”
“Don’t, don’t press the close button!!!”
I rapidly pressed the close button.
The elevator jolted, and the door finally closed.
As the elevator started moving, the homeless man began to sob, muttering something about it being all over.
Poor guy, must be really struggling mentally.
Ding— The elevator stopped at the 52nd floor. As the door opened, the Chinese characters for Heavenly Ordeal Sect greeted me.
“H-How? He ignored all the manuals and yet arrived safely. Why is this evil elevator sticking to the same building and dimension?”
“Do you really think elevators travel through dimensions? What kind of paranormal nonsense is this? Get a grip, old man.”
As I got off, the homeless man followed. Looking around, he muttered something about this being reality and then collapsed.
Of course, this is reality.
Stretching my fists, I headed towards the entrance of the Heavenly Ordeal Sect.
It was time to get Nayu back.
****
Nagu of the Heavenly Ordeal dropped her coffee.
It had only been a minute since Yoo Hajin boarded the infinite elevator, and he had already bypassed all the manuals and arrived at the headquarters of the Heavenly Ordeal Sect.
To reach the floor where the headquarters was located, one would need to know thousands of real manuals and dozens of hidden ones.
Did Yoo Hajin figure all that out?
How incredibly sharp must his spiritual senses be?
“A monster. Even the Triumvirate uses an Omega Tech-modified elevator. And he arrived here so quickly using a standard elevator.”
This implied that Yoo Hajin’s spiritual senses were better than those of the most elite members of the Heavenly Ordeal Sect. Nagu clenched her teeth, organizing her thoughts.
“I-I need to negotiate.”
There was no surviving a fight with such a monster.
Nagu decided to negotiate with this creature.
– – – The End of The Chapter – – –
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