I’ll Retire After Saving the World

Chapter 19: Basement’s 5th Floor (2)

TL: SHW

[Please enter the code.]

The light in the elevator flickered.

Hong Seok-young and Kim Chae-min quickly entered the elevator.

“Is this the secret entrance?”

“Code? What code is it talking about?”

“Is this why you said you needed to be here?”

It’s annoying how close they are to me. I pushed the two away and pressed the elevator buttons to enter the code.

After a moment, the elevator spoke.

[Confirmed.]

[Please press the floor you want to go to.]

“How many floors are there?”

I answered while pressing 5.

“Down to the 5th basement floor.”

Clunk.

Creak….

The elevator slowly descended. Every time it clunked, the lights flickered.

Kim Chae-min looked at the lights with uneasy eyes.

“Is it safe to ride this? It’s not going to fall, right?”

“Even if it falls, you won’t get hurt.”

“What about my psychological trauma?”

“From now on, use the stairs instead of the elevator.”

Kim Chae-min glared at me with a dumbfounded expression.

But I didn’t have time to care about Kim Chae-min.

The fact that the elevator was working was good. The fact that the code I entered worked was also good.

But why was the elevator clunking like this?

As if…

As if the power had been cut off.

On the surface, it looked like a haunted abandoned building, but the basement operated as a research lab was different. From the 2nd to the 5th basement floors. Ark had an unusual amount of money, so they didn’t spare any expense on research. There were a lot of equipment that looked extremely expensive even to my young eyes.

Pale lights with no warmth and coldly shining machines. Researchers walking around in white lab coats….

Ark continued to operate here until just before Hong Seok-young’s attack. I had been to many of Ark’s other research labs, but I spent the longest time here. Was it about two years?

At this point in time, Ark would be in full swing with their research. They wouldn’t leave the elevator lights flickering like this.

The head of the research lab was particularly strict about such things.

“But, Teacher Woo. This doesn’t look like a back door. Are we really sneaking in secretly?”

When the number indicating the floor changed to 4, Hong Seok-young asked.

I looked at Hong Seok-young with a face that seemed to ask why he would ask such a thing.

“Of course not.”

“…Then is it okay for us to enter this way?”

“Why wouldn’t it be okay?”

Hong Seok-young mumbled and closed his mouth.

Shaking his head, Hong Seok-young approached the elevator door. This slow elevator still hadn’t reached the 5th basement floor.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s unnecessary worry with me around.”

“Exactly. Hunter Hong will take care of everything.”

“Then there was no need to call the others, right? I could just go around and smack each one.”

“That’s right.”

I responded calmly.

“Why did you gather so many people then?”

[5th basement floor.]

It wasn’t until we heard the monotonous voice of the elevator that Hong Seok-young realized what he had just asked about.

He was wondering if the Ark’s people would be on guard, wasn’t he?

But judging by the lobby elevator not working, probably…

[The doors are opening.]

“Huh?”

“What?”

Hong Seok-young and Kim Chae-min hesitated with surprised faces. I also pushed them aside and got off the elevator with a puzzled expression.

I expected this from the moment the elevator clunked. It was just surprising that it wasn’t much different from my expectation.

An empty hallway.

It was full of signs of a hurried escape as if they had fled in the night. Equipment that they hadn’t managed to clear out were piled up like mountains on one side of the hallway.

The only light was the flickering one seeping out from the elevator.

***

Click.

Click click.

“Ah.”

“It’s working.”

The flashlight turned on.

“…What are you doing, leaving the Archmage out? I can just light it up with magic.”

“No, you can’t.”

“Then why did you bring me along? You won’t even let me use magic?”

“Did I bring you? He brought you along as he pleased.”

“I told you to call me teacher. Why do you still act like this?”

“I’m an employee, not your student.”

“Don’t you know that even teachers call each other teacher?”

“…Let’s go.”

“Huh. Now that you have nothing to say, you want to go? Fine, fine. Let’s go.”

The three of them started walking.

The young man holding the flashlight started walking ahead, seemingly acting as the guide.

He spoke to the woman following behind him with a sullen face.

“They’ve activated the emergency protocol. The mana might be unstable.”

“I’m an Archmage, you know? I can tell immediately if mana is unstable.”

“Yes, I’m sure you can.”

The man replied indifferently.

“I’m not sure if it’s the official name, but everyone calls it the Pompeii Project.”

“Pompeii Project?”

“Do you think they’d leave the house without any security measures? They probably drew runes that react to mana in hidden places. If they detect mana…”

The man briefly clasped his hands together and then spread them apart. It was obvious what that gesture meant.

An explosion.

The woman swallowed hard.

“…Runes can do that?”

“Runes aren’t that versatile. They just made the switch with runes, and placed a bomb.”

“A switch? A switch… Do you know that rune too?”

“…I’ll tell you later.”

“Wow!”

The woman smiled brightly.

The middle-aged man following at the back shook his head.

“It’s good to be eager to learn, but… let’s focus now. Even if it’s an empty house, there might be something worth salvaging.”

The man looked around the hallway.

“Teacher Woo, is this really the lab?”

“…Yes, it is.”

Woo Hwijae shone the flashlight on a door. Perhaps because they had evacuated in a hurry, many of the interior doors were left unlocked.

While checking for any possible traps, Woo Hwijae shone the flashlight inside the room.

It was just as cluttered as the hallway. Overturned desks and bookshelves. A bucket with partially burnt documents, as if they had tried to destroy them.

Even though they left no trace, there were still things that could be discerned.

“There’s no dust. It probably hasn’t been long since they left. They didn’t completely destroy the place, so they might come back.”

“But you don’t know why they left? Are you sure they didn’t know you were coming?”

Woo Hwijae shook his head.

“No. That’s unlikely… If that were the case, they wouldn’t have left so cleanly.”

Woo Hwijae led the two deeper inside.

“They usually wouldn’t move locations easily because of the kids….”

“Because of the kids?”

“I don’t really know what that experiment is about either. But it’s extremely restrictive in terms of environment. It’s a sort of….”

Other rooms looked similar to the first. There were cages with animal carcasses, likely used in experiments. Due to the dry environment, there was no rotting smell.

Woo Hwijae exited the room and checked another place, speaking as he went.

“…Clean room? It’s not a real clean room, but they made it similar, severely limiting the kids’ contact with the outside.”

“They didn’t hurt the children, did they?”

“No, it wasn’t that kind of experiment…. At most, they just drew some blood.”

But there was no certainty in Woo Hwijae’s voice as he said this.

There was no helping it.

In the past that Woo Hwijae knew, there had never been a night escape by Ark!

‘This is definitely something that didn’t happen.’

I glanced at Kim Chae-min.

It was also true that Kim Chae-min joining as a teacher at Pilot High School hadn’t happened.

And someone like Woo Hwijae, who had returned from the future, wouldn’t have existed originally.

So, what has changed?

If this isn’t another world, there must be a reason.

If there’s a reason, we just need to find it.

Before I knew it, we had reached the innermost part. From the 2nd to the 4th basement floors were mostly dormitories or storage for the researchers. They can be checked later.

“This door is locked?”

“It looks different, doesn’t it! This one has double doors and looks grand.”

Kim Chae-min was right.

It was a large iron door that seemed to scream there was something significant inside. Hong Seok-young knocked on the door to check.

“It looks quite thick. Should I force it open?”

“What if this door has the runes Teacher Woo mentioned? I don’t want to die!”

“Hmmm.”

…Why are they doing this to me?

I let out a blatant sigh and then pushed Kim Chae-min and Hong Seok-young aside.

What was the code here?

There was a keypad next to the door for entering the security code. Even though the power to the entire research lab had been cut, the security system should still work just like the elevator did.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

“…….”

Hong Seok-young’s gaze was intense.

He was probably fervently contemplating what my position within Ark might have been.

Originally, I hadn’t intended to reveal this much.

If the lab had been functioning properly, Hong Seok-young would have searched and beaten people up on his own while I stood by.

But now, I also needed to gather information. If I’m going to be suspected no matter what I do, it’s better to assert that I was a big deal.

I told you, if you’re going to stand out, do it decisively.

No, does this make me look too scheming?

I’m the victim here.

Beep.

Clunk.

The door opened.

Just as Hong Seok-young mentioned, it was a thick iron door. It was thick enough to remain intact even if the research lab exploded due to the Pompeii Project.

Whirr…

Click.

The lights turned on as we entered. I turned off my flashlight.

It was just as empty here. Since they had cleared out the outside so thoroughly, there was no way they left this part untouched.

The computers were completely removed, leaving none behind. The desks were also clean and empty.

But they did leave something behind.

“This place….”

I could hear Kim Chae-min gulp audibly. Hong Seok-young ground his teeth.

Past the empty desks, further in. The innermost part of the lab. The deepest part where they kept the children.

An entire wall was made of glass. Specifically, it was one-way glass that allowed us to see inside but prevented those inside from seeing out.

I lightly brushed the glass with my fingertip. Thanks to the lights being on inside the room, we could see the interior without any difficulty.

Soft mats on the floor. Rumpled blankets. Toy-like dolls. Fairy tale books. Bunk beds against one wall.

A painting of Ark on the opposite wall. An overturned ship using a rusted sword as its mast.

“…I feel like throwing up.”

Kim Chae-min muttered with a pale face.

Hong Seok-young’s hand was bulging with veins. I decided to inform them of a new fact.

“This room isn’t part of the Pompeii Project.”

This is the most important facility, it can’t be destroyed.

“Really?”

Hong Seok-young responded nonchalantly and then swung his fist.

Clang!

The glass shattered into pieces.

From the center to the ends. Fine cracks formed like a spider web and then completely collapsed. It was a spectacle.

I had seen this from the inside before. Afraid that the children would get hurt, the man had used his crazy mana control to dull the edges of the shattered glass.

Now, without the children around, he didn’t show such finesse.

But….

The sharp fragments of glass, for some reason, felt a bit…

Crunch.

I stepped into the room over the broken glass.

The glass pieces I stepped on.

For some reason, they felt a little… pleasant.