Amidst the moans and cries, Min-ho's breath quickened, his vision became blurry as the voices emanating into his ears turned to muffled noises.
Trying to control his breathing, he forced himself onto his feet. The toil of it all was finally getting to him, visibly illustrated by his wobbling and shaken disposition.
Looking around, the world had slowed to a crawl as fire and smoke filled the air. The disorienting and horrifying smell of burnt human and Spector flesh invaded his nose. In every direction he turned, the horror continued.
Burnt corpses, Z-Streamers who had parts of their bodies blown off, others who were consumed by flames, each one squealing and crying.
It was all too much for Min-ho, which almost made him lose his footing. But just as he was about to fall, he felt someone anchor him.
He turned to the person, only to find Sae-wee holding him in place.
Not dwelling on this, he shook his head, fully aware what the stakes were.
'I… have to… get it together,' he thought, the simple act of picking up the pieces in his mind had greatly reduced the strain he felt.
Turning around, he noticed Jang-book had a second to catch his breath. In fact, everyone did.
Despite the pain and death, one thing was very evident. All of the Spectors had been taken out by the flames.
'We have to keep going,' Min-ho thought, then pulled away from Sae-wee's grip, only to bump into Dok-su before finding his balance.
This rain of death had given them an opportunity Min-ho was not going to squander.
"Every…" he held his head as it throbbed.
Clenching his jaw, he forced the pain aside and yelled.
"There's no time to rest! Everyone who can still fight, gather around the giant Spector! We can kill the eggs before they hatch!"
No one responded, they were still dazed and their spirits were so low they had lost most of their will to fight.
"Dammit, now! Unless you all want to die!" he yelled, venting his frustration.
His words had startled them, yet it was enough to rekindle a semblance of their resolve.
Every able-bodied Z-Streamer forcefully began to race to the end of the hall where the giant Spector rested.
As they all ran, three Z-Streamers approached Min-ho. Each one trying not to step on the corpses scattered across the ground.
As they got closer, Sae-wee watched them with a strange intensity, particularly glaring at the one in the middle. He was short and had pink hair.
"We're supposed to solve a puzzle?" the man with pink hair said.
Min-ho fell silent as he counted them.
"There's only three of you?" Dok-su said, catching onto what was worrying Min-ho.
"We… don't know where the fourth member is," the pink-haired Z-Streamer said, his words hitting them like an energy sledgehammer.
Min-ho clenched his fists.
"Never mind that for now," he said, then pointed to the rooms in the walls housing the puzzles. "I need each of you to take a room and begin to solve the puzzle right away," he turned back to them. "Time is of the essence."
Without a word, they nodded and sprinted to the rooms.
Even though they left without causing any problems, Sae-wee's gaze lingered on the pink-haired Z-Streamer, an evident frown on her face.
"What do we do now?" Dok-su asked, his words somehow dancing around the question.
Min-ho turned his gaze to the back, staring at the Z-Streamers who were fighting alongside Jang-book to keep the hatching Spectors at bay.
"Sae-wee," he called out, drawing her line of sight away from the pink-haired Z-Streamer's direction. "I need you to find anyone from there who can solve the puzzle." He pointed.
"Okay," she said, then ran off without hesitation.
"What about us?" Dok-su asked.
"We check the injured if—"
"Ahhh!" A scream pierced the air, frightening everyone.
"Help us!"
"The doors closed!"
Min-ho turned to the location of the voices, and his heart stopped when he saw the rooms housing the puzzles sealed shut.
'What happened?' he asked, his heart pounding.
As he made to dash toward them, his throbbing head banged like it was being bombarded by rocks.
With a groan, he lost his footing and fell.
Outstretching his hands, his arms received the bulk of the impact when he fell. But not by much, as his fall was broken by something soft and moist.
Recovering from the pain in his head, Min-ho opened his eyes, only to wish he hadn't.
He was leaning over a pile of entrails and blood. An eye pulled out of its socket lay in the pile, its gaze frozen with the last horror it saw before being gouged out.
Min-ho froze, his body going numb and cold.
In that instant, his stomach churned. And before he knew it, the contents of his stomach rushed up his throat.
Turning to the side, he hurled whatever it was he had left in his stomach, the sickening feeling seemingly unending.
"Are you okay?" Dok-su said, helping Min-ho onto his feet.
Min-ho shook his head, then gestured Dok-su away.
"Go… go check on them, see if…" he held his mouth with his bloodied hand, "see if they're okay."
Dok-su hesitated, but seeing Min-ho was physically fine, he listened and ran for the Z-Streamers trapped inside the puzzle rooms.
Breathing hard, Min-ho cleaned out his mouth with the sleeve of his black jacket, then aimed his sights at the roof, still trying to get a hold of himself.
As he narrowed onto the timer, he forced himself to remain whole at all costs.
5:01
Now was not the time.
Steeling his resolve, Min-ho did everything in his power to push the horrific images in his head aside. Then, treating the corpses like they were nothing more than piles of meat, he ran.
"Help us!"
"Open the door!"
"I don't want to die!"
"Calm down," Dok-su tried to control the panic, but he was fruitless in that endeavor.
"What happened?" Min-ho asked, still trying to hold back from hurling.
"The doors sealed the moment they touched the puzzle," Dok-su said, his voice shaken, uncertain.
Min-ho turned away from Dok-su and stared at the sealed entrance.
"Are you hurt? Are there any Spectors inside?" Min-ho asked, but the Z-Streamer barely listened.
He just kept yelling for help. Furthermore, the voices of the other Z-Streamers trapped in the other two puzzle rooms could be heard from here, as though they were in this same room.
Min-ho's eyes flicked to the ceiling.
4:32
Their time was almost up, the dread that this information brought shook Min-ho to his core.
"Get us out of here!"
"I don't want to die!"
"This whole place could collapse on us!"
The Z-Streamers continued to cry. Min-ho clenched his fist and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"Shut the fuck up!" His voice, so mighty they could feel the impact from the other side of the wall, bringing them to an abrupt silence.
"You're all afraid to die?" he said in a calmer yet panicked voice. "Our timer is running out, everyone will die if you don't solve that puzzle. Every one of us here is counting on you."
Min-ho paused, unsure of what else to say.
"What if we solve the puzzle, and everyone on the outside survives, but we die in here?" Pink-hair asked, his voice suddenly stern and more controlled.
Min-ho was caught off guard by his words, but he didn't falter.
"We'll make sure to get each of you out—"
"That's not enough. Our deaths could be instant," Pink-hair insisted.
Min-ho glanced at the timer again.
4:02
Their time was running out. And so were his options. His knuckles tightened, dread crawling up his spine as he wondered how he would convince the Z-Streamers to lay down their lives for the others.
"Fuck, I'll join the last room," Min-ho said, astonishing Dok-su.
He wanted to speak up, but Min-ho stopped him with a hand wave.
"If you guys are going to die in there, then it's only fair that the person who sent you to your death dies with you, right?" Min-ho said, desperation in his voice.
No one spoke. The air felt still, brittle.
Min-ho lifted his gaze, staring at the timer.
3:53
He began to scratch his thumb.
"Come on, say something," Min-ho said, his voice a mix between a plea and a command.
"That won't be necessary," one of the Z-Streamers said, surprising both Min-ho and Dok-su. "If I die in here, please help my mom. We're drowning in debt and she needs money to pay them back. Her name is Un Ri-hae, she lives in the Northern District of Korea, Faction 14. Please find her if you survive this and help her."
"Me too, please help my brother. His legs and arms are going to be amputated if he doesn't get surgery. His name is Gong Jin-bi, he lives in the Northern District of Korea, Faction 41."
Min-ho froze for a moment, unsure of how to feel about any of this.
Falling his gaze, he clenched his fists.
"I swear on my life to help them if I get out of here," Min-ho said, meaning every word.
"Me too," Dok-su chimed in, pulling Min-ho's gaze. "At the very least, if he dies, I'll fill in."
"That's good," one of the Z-Streamers said.
"Then I'll do this," the other said.
Leaving out only Pink-hair.
Min-ho and Dok-su waited for Pink-hair, their eyes flickering to the timer again and again.
"You know what," he finally spoke up, causing Min-ho to hold his breath. "I think I'll take you up on that offer."
"What?"
"What did you say?"
The two other Z-Streamers said.
"Relax, if he dies, the other guy will fill in," Pink-hair said, his tone somewhat sadistic.
"You can't be serious."
"What the hell is wrong with you? Why would you slim our chances like that?"
"Fuck the both of you. All I know is that I'm not gonna die in here while the person who put me here in the first place goes scot-free. Either he joins us, or I'm not—"
"Alright, I'll do it," Min-ho said, his gaze on the timer.
3:26
"That was the initial plan anyhow," Min-ho said, turning to Jang-book's direction.
The Spectors were growing in number once again, steadily pushing back the Z-Streamers.
Sae-wee was approaching from the same direction, the evident fact that she was alone a clear indication of how bad things were getting.
"You can't just do that."
"Are you a fucking lunatic?"
The other Z-Streamers protested.
"Please return to the puzzles, we only have three minutes left," Min-ho said.
Silence fell for a second or two, before their footsteps began to echo and then fade.
"I won't be solving anything until I can hear your voice coming from one of the holes on these walls. Then I'll know you're really inside the puzzle room."
Min-ho balled his hands, but said nothing.
He just walked toward Sae-wee, dreading the news she was going to relay.
"You're not actually going to do it, are you?" Dok-su asked as he followed behind.
"I don't have a choice," Min-ho said, before coming to a halt when Sae-wee had reached them.
She was covered in cuts and blood. It would seem she had aided in the fight.
Min-ho stayed silent, and Sae-wee couldn't find the words either.
She just shook her head. The message made Min-ho's heart sink, even if he already knew.
"So… there's no one over there that can solve the puzzle?" Dok-su asked the obvious, as though hearing it would make a difference.
Min-ho did not waste time asking redundant questions. He turned on his heel and pinned his gaze to the other end of the hall.
As he did, he saw Im-hee hunched over a wounded Z-Streamer, healing him despite the pain written all over her being.
But he wasn't the only one she was healing.
There were a multitude of Z-Streamers littered across the floor on the other side of the glowing line where Im-hee was.
Some were recovering, others barely clinging to life.
Before Min-ho could properly process this, he saw Ji-su running toward them.
As he did so, Min-ho's soul threatened to abandon him, as he began to wonder what else was going wrong.
"Ji-su?" Dok-su called out, stepping forward.
"Did you find your fourth puzzle solver?" Ji-su asked, piquing Min-ho's attention.
He came to a halt once he reached them, his demeanor shaken.
"Can you do it?" Sae-wee asked, bringing up a thought that had slipped Min-ho by.
"Wait, can you—"
"He can't," Dok-su said, cutting Min-ho off as he held his brother's shoulder. "Go back now."
"But, Dok-su—"
"I said, go back." Dok-su squeezed Ji-su's shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Min-ho asked, his brow rising in confusion.
"We have to find someone to solve the puzzle," Dok-su said.
"Can you do this, Ji-su?" Sae-wee asked, angering Dok-su.
"I said we have to find someone els—"
Sae-wee bolted toward Dok-su, put one leg behind his and pushed him onto the floor.
He slammed hard onto the ground with a groan.
Min-ho froze, unsure of what was unfolding before his eyes.
"Dok-su," Ji-su yelped.
"What the hell are you doing?" Min-ho asked, summoning his dagger into his hand.
Sae-wee glanced at it, but paid him no mind. She grabbed Ji-su's shoulders and locked her gaze with his.
"Listen to me. We're all depending on you. Do this or we all die," Sae-wee said, not an ounce of uncertainty present in her soft voice.
Ji-su stuttered. He turned to his brother, then to Sae-wee, and nodded.
"Good," she let go of him and stood between him and Dok-su.
"You fucking bitch," Dok-su groaned as he struggled to get to his feet.
"Let's go," Ji-su said, pulling on Min-ho, who found his gaze frozen on Sae-wee.
A million different thoughts crossed his head, but he did not entertain a single one.
He glanced at the timer.
2:30
Seeing the timer made sure to stamp away any questions he had for now.
Turning on his heel, he dashed toward the last puzzle room with Ji-su, leaving Sae-wee with Dok-su.
Nothing else mattered as of now—only getting out of here alive.