Theatrical Regression Life - Chapter 349

Episode 349

Somehow, they did not die even after falling from the 15th floor of an apartment building, but that did not mean that Lee Jae-heon and Kim Yeon-woo suffered no injuries.

Lee Jae-heon’s abdominal and leg wounds opened again, and Kim Yeon-woo’s ankle ligaments were slightly stretched. Of course, it was full of big and small bruises and scratches.

Of course, it was difficult to explore the sinkhole and run around, both mentally and physically, but it was inevitable. Kim Yeon-woo and Lee Jae-heon quickly left the place.

“―Aaaaaaa!!”

A creepy yet majestic crying sound, as if a mixture of a monster and a newborn baby.

“Ahhh?”

“Ah ah ah ah ah?”

With cotton dolls dressed in cool and pretty clothes, the only thing they know to say is ‘Oh?’

“happy.”

“Let’s stay together.”

“We are happy.”

“Happiness….”

The mouths that suddenly cast gaslighting hands are placed in random places, such as the backs of the hands or wrists.

Kim Yeon-woo shouted in a solemn voice.

“It’s gross!!”

No matter how you look at it, it was an extremely disgusting sight.

The crying sound of a ‘baby’ who could not even see the face spread in all directions, whining through the tightly packed tunnel, and the ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ dolls, made in the same size as human life, vaguely resembled humans, creating an uncanny valley, and long and short extensions stretched out in various places in the tunnel. The pitch-black hands, each with their mouths in different places, spoke out loud, saying, ‘We are happy.’ I felt even worse because it seemed to resemble the hand of a keyring monster.

Kim Yeon-woo was so disgusted that he felt so wronged that he screamed.

“That’s gross, you won’t be happy at all! “It’s all lies!”

“Mr. Kim Yeon-woo, please calm down. “The more I talk, the less strength I have to run.”

“Ahhhh, you evil monsters…!”

There was no harvest found in the large cavity at the bottom of the sinkhole they fell into. If I sit still and wait, I can’t tell the passage of time, and my physical strength and mood only get worse. In the end, what they chose was to enter through the only door.

And what appeared was a warm and cozy house, worthy of a storybook.

‘…? ‘It’s strange.’

‘I feel bad.’

‘First… First, go back to the vacant lot…’

The words were ‘a warm and cute house’, but there was no way there was anything like that in the other side of the world. Lee Jae-heon feels strangely reluctant. Kim Yeon-woo felt a clear sense of discomfort and immediately tried to return to his original position, but…

‘Oh.’

‘… The door disappeared…’

‘It’s a typical horror movie cliché.’

Unfortunately, the door to return to the clearing had disappeared, and it was those doll monsters and hand monsters that approached them.

“When we go back to reality! movie! “I will study all movies!”

“It’s great to see your positive attitude, but it looks like you haven’t calmed down yet.”

“It’s creepy…!”

The hand extending out from the tunnel that resembled an anthill was also a hand, but the sight of the monsters chasing after them was enough to make Kim Yeon-woo’s calm heart pound.

“If dolls like that were sold in real life, no one would buy them…!”

“What are you evaluating?”

Hair made by attaching thin yarn. Round, shiny black plastic eyes. A smiling mouth that feels strangely sloppy, like the embroidery on socks sold on the street. A straight nose drawn vertically. Hands with indistinguishable fingers except for the thumb and a vaguely elongated and flat body. Traces of sewing that clumsily sewed the monster’s skin together.

However, the clothes they were wearing were realistic, just like what people wear, and they were even so cozy that they felt damp, so I felt disgusted. Even the sight of them chasing us, spreading their arms forward and stamping their feet as if they were trying to hug us, was creepy.

‘It would be better if it was at least smaller…’

Kim Yeon-woo, who looked back for a moment, looked forward again with a straight face.

‘It’s really vaguely the same size as a person, so it’s even more disgusting.’

The height of the dolls is between 160 and 180. If it was just as big as the palm of your hand, like the keyring monster Han Do-yoon caught, or as big as a teddy bear for an event in real life, I thought it would be really crazy to see long things like mullets flailing around chasing after it.

“―Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

“Ugh…!”

An unidentified crying sound that was not known where it was coming from also contributed to making it difficult for Kim Yeon-woo. The burned hands reaching out from all directions, the lies that keep telling her that she is happy, and the damn cute and confusing tunnel are driving her crazy.

It was as horrifying as her warm, soft brain turning into a cold, hard iron plate, and the steel plate being cut in long lines with fingernail clippers.

That auditory hallucination was gnawing deep inside my eyes.

“Mr. Kim Yeon-woo.”

“….”

“Mr. Kim Yeon-woo?”

“Don’t worry.”

But

you can endure it.

“Everyone is fine.”

Kim Yeon-woo was not alone.

Next to me was a man named Lee Jae-heon, and I couldn’t make this sick, poor man have to make another sacrifice. Additionally, Kim Yeon-woo was able to gain strength just from the fact that someone was next to him. It was because she believed that Lee Jae-heon would help her and that she would also help Lee Jae-heon.

If Lee Jae-heon had let go of Kim Yeon-woo’s hand when falling from the sinkhole, he could have been rescued by Kang Min-ah. Nevertheless, Jaeheon Lee held on to Yeonwoo Kim until the end, but didn’t he lose all his strength? This kind and grateful person was sure to help Yeonwoo Kim both materially and spiritually.

‘It’s the same even if I fell here alone.’

Even if Kim Yeon-woo had fallen into the sinkhole alone, she wouldn’t have let her life go. I knew that if Kim Yeon-woo died here, it would be like sending my colleagues who would come looking for me in vain, and there would definitely be people who would be saddened by my death.

Kim Yeon-woo braced his legs and kicked against the large door blocking his path.

“I can go out.”

Kwasik-!!

The tunnel that was like an anthill ended with a door.

“I.”

okay.

“I will protect you.”

Kim Yeon-woo is a police officer.

Has a duty to protect citizens and make them happy.

* * *

“Mr. Kim Ki-jeong, what do you hear?”

“No, not yet. “Nothing…”

Kim Ki-jeong sighed inwardly as he saw Do-yoon Han staring at him every minute.

‘You seem quite embarrassed.’

The keyring monster was actually not as small as a keyring doll to begin with, but it was Han Do-yoon who brought the flaming monster out of the apartment anyway. Even though I thought, ‘Someday, I’ll end up in hell,’ looking at that situation, Han Do-yoon also seemed to not be able to look at the current situation positively. As he was the one who brought the monster with him, his mental composure must have been even more exhausted.

As evidence, Han Do-yoon kept asking Kim Ki-jeong, ‘Can you hear something?’ If we think about Han Do-yoon, who usually does not expect much from Kim Ki-jeong, we can understand the seriousness of the situation.

“….”

Of course, the fact that two people fell into a sinkhole can’t be serious.

“I think I’m starting to lose my mind too.”

“Oh, you can’t even do that to Kim Ki-jeong. Our capable wave probe….”

“What is a wave probe?”

“A talent like a dolphin who can understand the surroundings through sound…?”

“Dolphin? “I know you’re crazy, so stop talking nonsense.”

Kim Ki-jeong finally let out the sigh he had been holding in and turned to Woo Woo-young.

“Is there anything else you were looking for?”

“There’s nothing in particular… yet. “The apartment complex itself is very large…”

Woo Woo-young shook his head after hearing his question. She also seemed anxious that her boss, whom she had been relying on, had recently fallen into a sinkhole.

In the meantime, Kim Ki-jeong, Han Do-yoon, and Woo Joo-young were separated from Yoon Gar-ram and each stirred up the apartment complex. Just in case, I decided not to go inside the apartment building anywhere, but even excluding that, the search was slow because the space was large enough.

“do?”

“Hmm…”

And the problem wasn’t just the width of the complex.

“It’s so strangely neat that it’s hard to find information.”

Woo Woo-young shook his head.

This apartment complex was extremely clean.

It was not simply a matter of whether there was trash lying around or how damaged the installed equipment was. Of course, unlike in the park, this apartment complex has no trash, and the playgrounds and benches are all clean, but it didn’t feel like it was being used, as if it was a model house for show rather than a place for people to live.

“Well, we mostly wandered around the upper part of the complex, right? If you look at where we are standing now, you can see that the tiles are very clean. “It’s like it was just yesterday… I know it wasn’t like this originally.”

Kim Ki-jeong nodded in agreement with Woo Joo-young, who had experience searching apartment complexes several times.

“you’re right. The playgrounds we checked didn’t have a single scratch. “Other than the occasional stray cat monster, you rarely see any other monsters, and there aren’t even any traces left behind by those cat monsters, which is a little strange.”

“I guess it’s because it’s a secret world, but I feel bad. Of course, the fact that it was this clean could itself be information… but I couldn’t find any information that could help save the manager or Yeonwoo.”

“Then of course…”

Kim Ki-jeong continued while looking at Do-yoon Han.

“I think we should go inside the building.”

“Okay, how about we start at the place where we first encountered the keyring monster?”

“No, no, calm down first…”

Han Do-yoon was looking after Kim Ki-jeong in the garden, but how did things end up like this? Kim Ki-jeong glanced at Yoon Gar-ram, who showed no particular intention to participate in their conversation, and then opened his mouth again.

“The possibility of the keyring monster being in room 1201 of building 119… is much higher there. Ugh… wouldn’t the risk be that high? “Let’s go to the one with the most information first.”

“The one with the most information…?”

“You haven’t looked for the management office yet.”

The building they decided not to enter until they were reunited did not just mean apartments. Management office located close to the entrance of the apartment complex. Since the management office is a place where employees who provide convenience to residents living in the apartment and manage it reside, it would have the most information related to the apartment.

Kim Ki-jeong calmed Han Do-yoon, who was shaking his legs, feeling like a dog owner grabbing the leash of a dog that was sniffing at a stranger.

“I know you feel guilty because you were the one who brought out the Keyring Monster, but uh… Part of our mission is to find the Keyring Monster, but it also involves finding information for the victims. The goal is to find information that may be helpful in rescuing Lee Jae-heon and Kim Yeon-woo. “Do you remember?”

“Oh yes, I remember.”

“Then stop shaking your legs and stop worrying about what you need right now, Han Do-yoon. Even if we find the key ring monster right away, if all of these people are injured, we won’t even be able to do our mission and will cause trouble. “Aren’t you going to save the two of us?”

“I have to save Gu….”

“Then I have to stay calm and not be anxious.”

“Calm down….”

“He said he heard the voices of Jae-heon Lee and Yeon-woo Kim even after falling into the sinkhole, and he didn’t feel anything, so they must be alive. “There is no need to be impatient.”

“Nune.”

“Aren’t you speaking clearly?”

After trying hard to stop Han Do-yoon, feeling like I was going to say everything I had to say for the rest of my life, I felt the eyes of two women looking at me intently.

“….”

“…What is it over there?”

“No, not really.”

Contrary to what he said, Woo Joo-young looked at Kim Ki-jeong as if he were a subordinate with whom he would work overtime, and Yoon Gar-ram was smiling at him as if he was surprised. Should I say that it is the face of a wild beast looking at a fox imitating a tiger when the tiger is not there?

Kim Ki-jeong instinctively felt scared.

“…Am I now in a set with Han Do-yoon?”

“I hope you two get along well as usual.”

“No, apart from that, Do-yoon Han’s eyes are telling me to put aside the screws that are missing right now.”

“Mr. Han Do-yoon is right next to you, so why bother, Mr. Kim Ki-jeong?”

“driving me crazy?”

Even when Kim Ki-jeong expressed his bewilderment, Do-yoon Han’s face did not straighten.

“….”

He was just looking up at the apartment building with a frown.

I felt strange.

(Continued in the next part)