Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 386

Suddenly, warning lights began to flash. The corridor transformed, the bright interior of the lab shifting dramatically as it alternated between the red glow of a street at night and darkness.

The cameraman, startled, looked around. People in white coats were frantically running in one direction.

Some, as if losing their sense of direction, ran backward, but most were grabbed by their arms or clothes and pulled back in the right direction.

“What’s going on?” The cameraman hurriedly pulled out his phone and called Rembrary. All the while, a chaotic alarm blared, as if a madman were pounding on it.

“Hello?”

Fortunately, Rembrary answered quickly.

“Mr. Rembrary! Where are you? Everyone is running outside!”

“[I think I took a wrong turn. I came to a place with a strange noise. There’s a beeping sound and the lights are flashing.]”

“No, it’s the same here. Something seems to be wrong with the building.”

“[With the building?]”

“You were heading back this way from the security office, right? Go back out!”

“[You get out too.]”

He felt like he needed to say more, but the other end hung up abruptly.

“Hello? Hello?”

The cameraman stamped his feet.

“Damn it. What should I do? Where is he?”

He didn’t know where the other man was, and he felt uneasy leaving him behind.

Just then, the door burst open, and the head researcher came out, asking,

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you getting out?”

The cameraman, relieved, explained the situation to him.

“Director! Mr. Rembrary seems to still be inside the building. But I don’t know where he is.”

“Then he’ll come out.”

But the head researcher replied simply and pointed to the people running in one direction.

“Unless he went into a restricted area, he’ll come out with the others. Let’s go quickly.”

After speaking, the head researcher ran ahead, and the cameraman, dithering, said, “Damn it. What should I do? What should I do?” before finally running after the head researcher.

* * *

The murky red light had already turned to a fixed vermilion color.

“Should I go back, or should I keep going?”

Rembrary alternately scanned the corridors, unable to tell which way he had come from. The lights no longer flickered, but the unsettling alarm continued to sound.

‘The basement that Tiger Head mentioned must be somewhere around here.’

He didn’t even know if this phenomenon was because he had entered a restricted area or if there was another problem.

After some deliberation, Rembrary decided to continue on his way.

But the moment he took a step, the flat wall began to rumble and protrude from the inside, eventually spiraling outward.

It was slow, but the problem was that it wasn’t just happening in one place. It was happening from both sides, and in various locations.

‘What is this?’

At this rate, even the space he was standing in would disappear. Rembrary carefully examined the corridor ahead and behind.

‘It’s like a dungeon.’

Looking closely, the way Rembrary had come, that is, the path leading out of the restricted area, was narrowing, but the opposite side was only narrowing in this vicinity, while the walls further away were intact.

There was no choice. Rembrary walked toward the side of the wall that wasn’t changing.

* * *

When the cameraman got outside, interns and researchers were already gathered, murmuring and anxiously watching the building.

The interns, in particular, looked very bewildered by the sudden situation.

On the other hand, some of the researchers were as frightened as the interns, but others were relatively calm, as if they had experienced this before.

The cameraman inadvertently followed the head researcher but belatedly realized that this was the moment he needed to film and raised his camera.

“Um, Director. What is that sound? Why is it making that noise?”

“When an intruder enters the lab, an emergency alarm automatically goes off and a containment mode is activated. That’s the situation.”

“An intruder?”

The cameraman turned his camera toward the wide-open lab door. People were still coming out, and the threatening flashing lights were still visible beyond.

The head researcher sighed behind him.

“An intruder all of a sudden.”

At that moment, someone shouted from among the interns.

“Mr. Rembrary might still be inside!”

The cameraman turned to see the intern who had tried to talk to Rembrary twice, only to fail both times, staring intently at his phone.

“What are you talking about? Mr. Rembrary didn’t come out?”

When the person next to him asked, the intern shouted, “Look at this!” and brought his phone close to the other person’s face.

“Huh?”

The person who looked at the phone also let out a short scream.

“Why is he here?”

The cameraman, just in case, entered the channel that Kim Mu-rok had created for Rembrary. As soon as he entered the channel, the word LIVE was displayed. And a constantly moving red screen.

Rembrary’s face was barely visible, but it was possible to guess that the person holding it was Rembrary.

The background was clearly inside the lab right now. Rembrary had definitely turned on the small self-camera that he had received from Kim Mu-rok.

“What should we do!”

One of the more sensitive interns shouted, and an intern who idolized Rembrary quickly ran to the head researcher.

“Director! Mr. Rembrary seems to be inside, what should we do!”

In fact, no one knew what was happening inside or how dangerous the situation was. They had simply rushed out together when they heard the loud noise and saw the scary lights.

But when they saw the live streaming video that Rembrary had turned on, people finally screamed with clear fear.

The self-cam showed the walls getting narrower and narrower.

Other interns also took out their phones and watched the situation, chattering anxiously.

The cameraman also ran to the head researcher and asked again.

“Director, what is this? Can’t you stop it? Someone is going to die!”

“This moves automatically…”

“It’s not a natural phenomenon, is it! Isn’t there a way to stop it by cutting off the electricity or something?”

The head researcher rubbed his cheek with a troubled expression.

“There are many Awakened [people with supernatural abilities] criminals who want to know the secrets of the lab. We have to protect the lab from those people, so we are thoroughly prepared for this kind of situation.”

“So can you stop it or not!”

The head researcher looked at his secretary and asked, “Is there a way?” and the secretary tilted his head.

“I’d have to look.”

Muttering an apology, the head researcher nodded to the cameraman and took his secretary away from the others.

They weren’t inside, but they were far enough away that people couldn’t eavesdrop on their conversation. But even so, with people all around, the head researcher boldly made this request.

“If Mr. Rembrary comes into the net [a designated capture zone], keep him locked up.”

“Will he come in…?”

“If he runs away from the direction the walls are narrowing, he’ll eventually arrive at one place.”

The head researcher covered his mouth with his hand, pretending to adjust his chin, to hide his smile.

* * *

How much time had passed? Finally, the flashing lights returned to normal, and the loud alarm stopped. But people couldn’t relax.

Because Rembrary had dropped the camera in the middle, they didn’t know what had happened afterward.

-What’s going on?

-What is it?

-Is there anyone over there???

Sometimes it’s scarier when you can’t see anything. Viewers who thought Rembrary’s broadcast was half a joke, and that everything that looked dangerous was just a concept, were surprised to hear about the situation from the interns on the scene.

As time went on, the head researcher also felt a bit uneasy and gathered the interns, saying,

“It would be better to go back for today. Mr. Rembrary will be searched for by our team, so you can go back today and come back tomorrow.”

He was worried because he hadn’t received a call saying that ‘Rembrary had been caught.’ At this point, he wanted to get rid of these cumbersome people and go back into the lab to check Rembrary’s location.

That’s when it happened.

“Director, Director!”

The secretary, who had gone inside, approached with a pale face and announced in a low voice.

“The wall movement is over, but Mr. Rembrary didn’t come into the net.”

“He escaped?”

The head researcher asked in surprise.

After Rembrary gave him a handful of anchovies and left, he began collecting all the videos that Rembrary had appeared in or posted on social media to analyze his strength.

As a result, the head researcher learned that Rembrary was strong against people, animals, and even monsters.

On the other hand, he didn’t seem to have any special talents with inanimate objects. He might be hiding his strength, but so far there was no sign of it.

Therefore, the head researcher prepared a situation to catch Rembrary using inanimate objects in case Rembrary appeared again.

He was surprised when he learned that Rembrary had the same blood as non-Awakened people, but the head researcher’s interest didn’t fade.

There were still many things he wanted to research about Rembrary. But he escaped again?

“No, he’s inside the wall!”

But what the secretary shouted was worse than expected. He’s inside the wall.

The head researcher’s face turned pale.

“Inside the wall?”

“It’s better to see for yourself.”

The head researcher hurriedly followed the secretary into his personal lab. When he turned on the monitor again, Rembrary’s location was displayed.

The secretary was right. Rembrary was in the middle of the corridor.

Normally, it wouldn’t matter. It was a restricted area, but it was just in the middle of the corridor.

However, now that the intruder containment mode had been activated, the corridor in the restricted area was no longer just a corridor. The walls were gradually moving and meshing together to the point where a person could not stand in the corridor.

But the fact that his location was displayed there meant….

“This is crazy.”

The head researcher clicked his tongue and hurriedly took off his glasses.

“Deactivate containment mode.”

After speaking, he went outside, and the secretary trembled as he pressed the button.

At that moment, a huge flower unfolded in front of the secretary’s eyes with a bang.

“Eek!”

The secretary was so surprised that he fell backward and didn’t even realize it was a flower.

After rolling around on the floor several times, he got his body stuck in a chair and barely managed to stand up against the wall. Leaning against the wall, he barely managed to stand on his trembling legs.

The three long monitors that had been placed side by side were already shattered and unrecognizable, and the desk was broken in half and pushed to the left and right of the wall. Only the shards of glass on the floor indicated that there had been monitors there.

The secretary swallowed hard. Only after creating some distance did he see that the thing that had broken the computer and desk from the floor was a huge rose, a gigantic rose big enough to swallow about five people.

“Wh-what is that……”