Chapter 2 - No Return
The 12th floor.
Again, the 12th floor.
And then... nothing.
The elevator simply stopped.
Jhin frowned and glanced out through the tiny window in the elevator wall.
All he could see was darkness — deep and endless.
He tapped the indicator screen lightly, as if coaxing it to move.
Waited.
"...It's really stuck."
Beeeeep—
Clicking his tongue, Jhin pressed the yellow emergency button.
This was a luxury apartment, after all.
Surely someone was monitoring things around the clock.
He wasn't too worried yet.
He leaned closer to the intercom and spoke carefully:
"Hello? This is Unit 5-6, Building 103. The elevator's stopped."
[ . . . ]
"Hello? Anyone there?"
Only silence answered back.
He pressed the button again, more urgently this time.
"Hello?! Please respond!"
[ . . . ]
Still no answer.
Jhin cursed under his breath and banged hard against the metal doors.
"Hey! Somebody's trapped in here!"
His voice echoed in the empty shaft, swallowed by the thick silence.
At six in the morning, in a building with walls designed to smother noise,
who would even hear him?
His forehead creased into a deep frown.
Gritting his teeth, he pulled out his phone and quickly dialed 119.
[119 Emergency Rescue Center, how can we help you?]
"This is the I-Poke Complex, Stoneveil City-dong! The elevator's stuck, and the security office isn't answering either!"
[Are you alone, caller?]
"Yes!"
[Don't worry too much. A rescue team is on their way.]
"How long will it take—?"
BOOM!
A deafening roar shook the ground, cutting him off.
The elevator rattled violently, throwing Jhin against the wall.
"Ugh— what the hell!"
Lights flickered.
The world spun between flashes of light and bursts of darkness.
Jhin clung desperately to the handrail, breath caught in his throat.
And just as suddenly, everything went still.
"...I thought I was going to die."
Wiping a cold sweat from his forehead, he tried calling 119 again —
but this time, the call wouldn't even connect.
He pressed the emergency button once more, hammering it with his palm.
Nothing.
Just an awful, heavy silence.
A chill crept up his spine.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Jhin swallowed hard, staring into the darkness.
Without warning, the lights cut out completely, plunging the elevator into pitch-black night.
Fumbling, he turned on his phone's flashlight.
The beam was weak, like a dying candle.
He shined it toward the doors.
His instincts screamed at him.
'I have to get out.'
He gripped the doors with both hands, taking a deep breath.
He was stuck between floors, in a building that had just suffered a major tremor.
If the cables snapped now...
He didn't finish the thought.
He pulled.
Hard.
In movies, elevator doors opened easily, like magic.
But in real life...
"Huuuup!"
He managed to crack them open slightly, just enough to peer out.
Beyond the narrow gap, he caught a glimpse of concrete.
The elevator was wedged between the 13th and 12th floors.
Jhin gritted his teeth.
'Just a little more...'
His hands strained.
Sweat dripped from his brow.
If only he had been stronger.
If only he had spent less time glued to a screen and more time at a gym...
"Huuuuuup!!"
He pulled with everything he had.
And failed.
The doors stubbornly refused to budge.
He sagged back against the wall, panting.
"Whew... I really can't open it."
Maybe... maybe it was smarter to just wait for rescue.
He was still thinking that when—
Ding!
His phone chimed.
And then, before his stunned eyes, translucent letters floated in the air:
[#0115 Channel has been opened.] [Welcome. This is the 'Earth Area.'] [A quest has arrived.]
Category: Tutorial
Difficulty: F
Condition: You are isolated in an elevator.
Soon, the area will be completely overrun by 'Parasites.'
Escape from the 'Elevator' within 1 minute.
Time Limit: 1 minute
Reward: Crude Longsword
Failure: Death
Jhin blinked.
"...What the hell?"
Floating text.
Exactly like the system windows from Exodia.
He had stared at screens like this for five years — he knew it all too well.
But this wasn't a game.
This was real.
Or was it?
Skrishh... skrishh...
A faint, scratching noise stirred from below.
Jhin stiffened, flashlight trembling in his hand.
He pointed the beam downward — and froze.
From the cracks in the elevator floor, something black was spilling out.
A shifting, seething mass.
It wriggled and twisted, pouring toward him.
It looked like a swarm of cockroaches.
"—!"
Instinct screamed.
Move!
The elevator shook again, trembling as the black tide rose higher.
He glanced up at the floating quest window.
Forty seconds left.
"Uaaahh!"
Jhin threw himself at the elevator doors, jamming his fingers into the narrow gap.
Summoning strength he didn't know he had, he heaved.
He could feel the doors resisting.
Feel them almost giving way.
They say people can lift cars when adrenaline hits.
He didn't know about cars —
but right now, he could tear through steel if it meant survival.
"Huaaaahh!!"
With a metallic groan, the doors finally, grudgingly, yawned open.
Skrishh—skriiishh!!
The mass of blackness was almost upon him.
Something cold brushed his ankle.
Without looking back, he hurled himself through the gap.
His clothes snagged on a piece of twisted metal.
Fabric ripped.
Pain stung.
He didn't care.
He tumbled onto the 13th-floor landing, gasping for air.
Behind him, the elevator was swallowed whole by the black mass.
The swarm twisted into a swirling vortex — a dark, hungry mouth.
Jhin shoved himself upright, heart hammering.
A single bug clung to his ankle.
He kicked it off and watched it scuttle back toward the blackness.
"...What the hell is this."
He said it aloud, voice shaky — but deep down, he already knew.
It was that.
The thing he had seen hundreds of times in game cutscenes.
The familiar horror, now horrifically real.
He rubbed his eyes.
No change.
No waking up.
If anything, the details were too sharp.
Too vivid.
Could this be real?
Ding!
Another notification chimed.
He flinched and checked the message:
[Quest cleared.] ['Crude Longsword' awarded.] [A new quest has arrived.]
CLANG!
With a flash of light, a longsword clattered onto the marble floor in front of him.
Jhin stared at it —
Feeling the weight of a reality he was no longer sure he could escape.