“Ugh… Mister Jack O’Lantern?”

Swept away by Rapunzel’s attack and fallen to the bottom, we had lost consciousness from the great shock.

Suho, the sturdiest among us, seemed to have woken up first and gathered us in a relatively safe place.

“I don’t know. It seems like he was flung off.”

The hot air balloon was nearby, but there was no trace of Mister Jack O’Lantern.

We shook the others awake and decided to start moving.

Given the circumstances, this place seemed to be the bottom, so Alice must be here too.

I get up and try to grope my way through the dark space where I can’t see very well.

“Shh!”

As I was leading the way, I stopped the club members following behind. Because I felt a presence.

I was on high alert because the footsteps didn’t sound like those of a human being.

“That’s… What is that?”

What appeared was a grotesquely transformed black monster.

They looked like humans, but they walked differently, were very thin, and had fairly large heads.

It had no facial features on its head, making it look like an egg ghost.

…But there must be a more appropriate analogy.

Ah.

The club members seemed to have the same thought and made eye contact.

Stickman.

You know, that thing.

The human created from doodles in notebooks by people who can’t draw well, claiming it’s a person.

If that appeared in reality, it would probably look exactly like that.

Though its actions are closer to those of a beast.

After it passed by, we had a brief conversation.

“What is that thing?”

“I don’t know. But somehow it doesn’t feel like a devil or an anomaly… It feels similar to a monster.”

Having encountered a creature of hell, that was our overall impression.

Although it didn’t feel exactly the same as the beings under Alice’s command, it was undeniable that it was similar.

We carefully walked through the darkness, avoiding the scary things.

Strange creatures that have overlapped and mutated, and butterflies in the shape of books.

And other tale devils.

Considering the tale devils we’ve met so far, they’re all powerful beings that I couldn’t defeat without Alice, so it was best not to get caught.

It would probably be impossible to win by fighting.

As we proceeded like that, we came across a staircase.

And next to it was posted a map of the lower floor.

The map is simple, like a dungeon map, but it clearly warns you that there are dangers ahead.

This strangely kind setup felt familiar somehow.

“…”

That’s right. It was similar to Alice’s methods.

Could it be that Alice created this dungeon?

Or was it a coincidence? If not even that, could it have been unintentionally influenced by Alice?

I’m not sure. Still, I have a vague belief that this dungeon is related to Alice.

[The time to face the end has come.]

“…”

A phrase caught my eye just as I was about to descend the stairs.

The end…

What end is it talking about?

“Let’s go down.”

[Those who wish to enter the depths of hell. Perform evil.]

Was that an auditory hallucination?

A strange voice was heard.

I don’t remember the voice, but its hidden meaning was a strange sound that stuck in my mind.

Keeping that meaning in mind, I went down the stairs.

At the place we reached, there was a book.

Unlike other books that had turned black and unreadable after the overlapping phenomenon, the contents of this book were clearly visible.

This story was roughly about ordinary people living their daily lives and being happy.

It was short and nonsensical.

We tore our eyes away from the book and looked at the small Gate of Hell blocking our path.

It seemed like we had to do something here to go down.

I recalled the auditory hallucination I heard when I came in.

“Did you guys hear an auditory hallucination too?”

The club members said they heard it too.

If so, it meant we had to perform evil, given the circumstances.

Perform evil… This time, I couldn’t proceed even with the thought of saving Alice.

This time, it seems we really have to perform what we commonly think of as evil.

“What kind of bad deed should we do?”

It was the moment I asked the club members for their opinions.

[Murder.]

“…!”

Again, the meaning was imprinted in my mind.

Murder…?

The club members stirred at that word.

And a knife was in my hand.

“Are you telling us to kill each other?”

Hearing that, I declared.

“Absolutely not.”

If that’s really the case, I won’t proceed any further.

Hearing the provocative word murder, my head surprisingly felt calmer.

Now, this kind of quiz is similar to Alice’s methods.

It means that wit is required.

And the book placed here wouldn’t just be a decoration.

“…If my thinking is correct, the answer is really simple.”

What I did was really simple.

The story in the book didn’t have a set ending, and the rest was made up of blank pages.

I took a pen out of my bag and started writing on the blank pages.

And I killed off the characters.

That was all there was to the story.

Creak… The door opens.

“Too easy… But there must be a simple reason.”

“Reason?”

“Isn’t it a metaphor? Metaphors are usually easy to understand.”

A metaphor… It was meant to make things understandable.

That has similarities to the nature of monsters.

I thought that these gradually emerging “hints” had a similar nature to the “walkthroughs” that allowed even us, mere children, to defeat monsters.

I couldn’t help but think that Alice and this dungeon were greatly related.

“Ha-rim!”

While lost in thought, numerous footsteps were heard. Suho, sensing danger, called out to me.

“Murderer! Murderer!”

“Why did you kill us!”

“Damn, you wicked bastards!”

Monsters in the shape of fatally wounded people saw us and condemned us as murderers.

Impaled on skewers, burned black, and wounded in various ways, beings close to zombies chased after us, vowing revenge.

Those things… Are they the characters from the book we killed?

We immediately ran to the door.

Eun-jeong got angry while running away.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Why are we murderers!”

It was understandable to be upset.

Because we only killed people in a book.

Just as killing people in a creative work doesn’t constitute murder, killing non-existent beings is not called evil.

However, the Gates of Hell judged this as evil.

[To be swayed at will, and even if evil is committed, nothing can impose sanctions. Because it is merely a creative work, or an illusion, or a dream. The sin of all derived worlds is a sin that is not real.]

We heard the voice and fled from the chasing characters.

We managed to shake them off on the lower floor and caught our breath for a moment.

“Those things… They really feel similar to monsters. But why are they attacking us?”

“Either they’re not monsters, or they’re in an uncontrollable state, or if not even that… Maybe there’s something they want to tell us by doing this.”

Another question arose, and we moved on to the next.

This time too, a voice was imprinted in my mind.

[Angels do not protect you. Why is that?]

Statues in the shape of angels appeared.

They were not looking at us, but at the sky.

We pondered what these angel statues meant.

The reason angels don’t protect people.

Eun-jeong said it might be to give us trials.

It was a remark made because she hadn’t changed her mind that angels had good intentions, even after the angel incident revived by Ariel.

It makes sense, but… My thoughts were a little different.

“Ha-rim! They’re chasing us…!”

While we were thinking, the monsters that had attacked us reappeared.

They were trying to kill us with burning eyes, as if we were really murderers.

“Oh angels. Punish them!”

They wanted the angels to punish us.

However, the angels did not move at all.

Seeing that, I confirmed my answer.

The reason angels don’t save people.

It resembled our way of thinking when we thought it wasn’t a sin to kill characters by writing in a book.

“Because… They’re not real people!”

Characters in a book.

Furthermore, characters in a creative work are not considered human.

That is common thinking.

If angels thought the same way, there was no reason to save the people in the book.

…Looking at how indifferent they are to us, perhaps we, too.

Creak…

“We got it right!”

We fled through the door again, avoiding the chasing monsters.

“Haa…”

I let out a sigh and stood at the next door.

There isn’t much time to rest. Those monsters will chase us again.

If Alice was here, if Alice’s tools were here, we might be able to win, but the tools are almost losing their power and unable to respond.

“The dungeon is made of five floors. The fifth floor is the deepest part. Alice will definitely be on the fifth floor.”

“If we pass this, it’s almost halfway, so let’s try a little harder.”

We had to encourage each other and move on to the next.

Alice. I’ll come find you soon.

[It is vulnerable to light.]

A voice was imprinted in my head, and the gatekeeper of this floor appeared.

It had the appearance of a palette and a brush, and it seemed impossible to proceed unless it was defeated.

It’s not an opponent we can defeat physically.

The tools don’t work properly either, this time it’s a fight that purely fulfills a gimmick.

Vulnerable to light… It said.

Even if I shine a phone light, it doesn’t seem to be in pain.

“Murderers!”

“We’ll kill you the same way!”

Those things were really persistent.

We took a step back as they pursued us so persistently and with such anger that we even felt guilty.

At that moment, the palette monster, which hadn’t moved much, waved its brush.

Then the monsters melted into black.

Freeman came to mind.

“Again… We… Are we just destined to be swayed at will?”

They turned black and were absorbed by the monster’s brush, and the palette monster then began to target us in earnest.

N/A

As always, if you spot any mistakes, feel free to let me know—and I hope you enjoyed the read!

—Chi