Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary!

Chapter 679: Walking Disaster [9]

The quiet echo of the steps resonated across the surroundings as the doctor moved in silence, the bodyguards following from behind as they arrived before a certain door.

Staring at the door, the doctor’s thoughts drifted to the man they had just met a moment prior, before he shifted his attention back to the door.

To Tok!

With the back of his knuckle, he knocked a couple of times before moving back, waiting to receive an answer.

But⎯

“…..”

Even after a couple of seconds had elapsed, there was no reply. There was no one to open the door for him as the doctor’s head cocked in confusion.

“Did they not hear me?”

He brought his hand forward, knocking a couple of times again.

To Tok!

However⎯

Just like before, he didn’t receive a single reply.

The doctor paused for a moment as he reached for the handle of the door, his head turning towards his two bodyguards as they looked at each other.

The air around them shifted.

Without further ado, the doctor pulled out his badge and scanned it onto the side of the wall before pulling the door open.

Creak!

A subtle creaking sound echoed the moment the door opened, cutting through the silence that had settled around them.

The doctor took the lead, his voice echoing out.

“Pardon my intrusion. Since no one was answering, I took the liberty of opening the door myself. I hope I’m not…”

The doctor’s words fell halfway as he stared at the insides of the monitoring room. What should’ve been a room filled with people busy at work, overseeing the entire laboratory, was filled with nothing but silence.

There was not a single soul in sight.

Every chair was empty, and in particular, the table in the middle was completely broken.

Alongside the sight lingered a thick, iron-like scent. It didn’t take long to realize where it came from as the door creaked further open, revealing a carpet of crimson spread across the floor. Numerous bodies lay scattered throughout the room, each one turned away from the entrance.

“…..”

Staring at the room, silence followed for a second.

Until⎯

“Pftt.”

A certain laugh shattered the silence, the doctor bringing his hand to his face as he suddenly started cracking up. The guards behind him looked at him with startled looks before the doctor recovered as he looked back.

“We’ve been had.”

He muttered, taking out a small communication device, his eyes still scanning the empty room with something that looked almost like amusement.

“And here I was wondering why I was thinking about him. I guess he slipped right through our noses.”

His eyes swept across the room as he stepped through the blood, his reflection rippling across the crimson beneath his feet before he carefully made his way over the bodies. Partway through, his head tilted. Spotting something among the corpses, he stopped and nudged one of the guards next to him as they brought them to him.

Receiving the items, his head tilted further.

“How peculiar…” He muttered, unable to make sense of the items. Shortly after, the line of his communication device connected directly with the security captain as he spoke, “There’s been a breach. Shut down the entire laboratory. We’ve… got a rat in our midst.”

***

WHEEE! WHEE! WHEEE!

I expected to be found out the moment I crossed paths with the doctor. Honestly, there was no way for me to stop him from realizing that something was wrong. I had already bought enough time, and with the monitoring devices shut down, I had achieved what I wanted to achieve from the start.

Hence why I wasn’t too bothered about the sudden sirens that blared across the surroundings, red flaring in all directions as the entire place became rowdy.

‘Honestly, it doesn’t even matter.’

Activating the Realmwalker’s ability, I sank into the ground, the world around me changing completely as I donned the sunglasses, feeling a certain chill press against me from all directions.

With the blaring around me completely gone, I proceeded to run completely unobstructed.

“….H-ha.”

Although there was no one to stop me, each step that I took felt heavier than the last.

Not just physically.

There was a dull, grinding ache pressing against my mind with every stride. It started becoming harder for me to think.

To make matters worse, subtle cracking sounds followed as I moved ahead, but I ignored the pain and continued to head in the direction of where I needed to go.

“…Do me a favor and see if there’s any anomaly around. I don’t think I’ll be able to fight in this state.”

Rushing ahead, I spoke to one of the figures that appeared next to me.

The Conductor’s voice followed.

“There are a few troublesome ones ahead. I would be worried if I were you.”

My steps almost faltered.

“But they’re all locked up, so even if you move past them, you’ll be fine.”

I clenched my teeth, nearly feeling the urge to attack the Conductor, but I just barely held myself back, considering my current situation.

Of all the times to mess with me…

Even worse…

I found myself chuckling.

“Hehe.”

The Conductor chuckled alongside me.

“Kakaka.”

Turning down the corridor and following the path that I had memorized, I found myself back in Sector 3. Familiar with this area already, I rushed ahead and headed towards the recovery rooms.

‘If I’m not wrong, Soran should be here.’

I had already checked beforehand in the monitoring room, and as I arrived in the recovery room area, I was greeted with numerous rooms labeled with numbers across both sides. Long rows of them, stretching further than I would’ve liked, each door identical to the last.

I gave the surroundings a quick scan before cancelling my skill. The world bled back into color, the red emergency lights washing over everything as the sound of people crashed back into my ears all at once.

“Lock down this area! Make sure that no one passes here!”

“Do not let anyone pass here!”

“Check this area too!”

I didn’t change my appearance this time. Not because I didn’t want to, but because I physically couldn’t. The moment I tried to activate my node, it simply refused to listen to me.

‘Fine, it doesn’t matter.’

In fact, it seemed like all of my nodes refused to listen to me. They were so exhausted that even if I were to pop a pill at this moment, it probably wouldn’t do a thing.

I had no choice but to put this at the back of my mind as I looked around the room, Mirelle, the Realmwalker, Mr. Jingles, the Conductor, and even Kyle, spreading out to look across each room.

Thankfully, while I couldn’t use my nodes, I could still summon my anomalies, and while having them act still put a strain on my nodes, I could handle this much.

“Look for Soran. She should be here some⎯!”

My words came to a sudden stop when I heard the sound of footsteps coming from ahead.

It wasn’t just one person.

My heart skipped a beat.

I could already see the shadows stretching around the corner, growing larger with each second.

Realizing my situation, I instinctively tried to use my nodes, but right as I did, a sharp pain tore through me, and my knees nearly gave out entirely.

‘A-ah, right…’

Step! Step! Step!

“Check this area! Make sure to check every room! The doctor said that he might be here somewhere.”

The voices were getting louder.

My eyes swept across the corridor, looking for something.

Anything.

A door.

A corner.

Anything at all.

And just as I was struggling to think of a solution, a certain voice reached me.

“I’ve found her.”

My head flicked in a certain direction, my eyes settling on Kyle as he pointed at a certain door.

“She’s here.”

I didn’t waste a single second, rushing towards the door as I reached for the handle and pulled. It opened with a simple click, no obstruction, as I heard the soft chime from Mr. Jingles ring inside my head as I threw myself through.

Heading in, I closed the door behind me.

Clank!

“Haaa… Haaa…”

Taking deep and heavy breaths, I stood by the door, back pressed hard against it. The sounds outside were still there.

From footsteps to voices as orders were being barked from one end of the corridor to the other.

I didn’t move.

I just listened, waiting for them to pass.

A certain darkness greeted my sight.

When I turned my head, my gaze fell on the figure lying on the bed inside the room. Numerous tubes ran from her arms and chest, connected to machines that beeped in quiet and steady intervals. She looked smaller than I expected. Fragile, even.

A stark contrast to the loud and boisterous version that I was accustomed to.

I stared at her for a moment longer than I needed to.

Then I drew a long breath of my own, feeling something loosen in my chest that I hadn’t realized had been wound tight this entire time.

‘Alright.’

I pushed myself away from the door.

‘…I finally found you.”