Chapter 112

It was a title that slipped from someone’s lips at a moment I never expected.

Even though it was a name I had used for a long time, it felt incredibly unfamiliar.

I couldn’t hide the wavering in my eyes.

Orca gently set me down on the ground.

He continued speaking, scrutinizing me with his pitch-black eyes.

“It was exactly like this. Your face, your actions…”

“…….”

“The dream was so vivid it felt like reality. I always felt a sense of loss whenever I woke up. Every night, I waited for Roasted Chestnut to appear in my dreams.”

“…….”

“The time spent with Roasted Chestnut was the only distraction in that wretched solitary cell. Haha, I used to look forward to bedtime so much.”

“…….”

“I desperately wished for it to be real, but I had given up, knowing it was merely a futile dream… yet here you are, appearing right before me!”

Orca burst into laughter once more.

“Perhaps all those dreams were actually premonitions.”

I had a suspicion.

It wasn’t a premonition.

Orca had experienced the gameplay I had performed in the dream.

To be precise, it seemed he had experienced—through his dreams—the version of me that played the role of the medic in Cell-X.

It was a moment where reality and the game intersected.

I had experienced a moment like this before.

It was in <Clean! Clean! Clean!>

In Clean3, the butlers remembered every move I had made; the moment they saw me, they welcomed me by calling me ‘Roasted Chestnut.’

However, the premise of Clean3 was that the game itself "remembered the player’s previous actions."

But Cell-X doesn’t have a feature like that.

Why, then, did Orca dream about the gameplay we shared? I tried to think of what Clean3 and Cell-X might have in common, but nothing immediately came to mind.

I… looked at Orca.

I couldn’t quite decide how to respond to the look of eager anticipation on his face.

It was because I didn’t know how the fact that I ‘knew’ them would play out.

I had already been through this once before with Clean3.

The butlers there had acted on my behalf, driven by a deep fondness for me.

But their goodwill wasn’t what I wanted.

I had nearly been infected and turned into a mansion butler myself, and even after barely regaining my senses, I was shipped off to CallOVo by them.

The result of that was Dominic, standing right beside me now.

There was no telling what might happen this time, either.

Of course, it was unlikely to be worse than the situation with Dominic…

Still, it was clearly dangerous. The conclusion was obvious without needing further thought.

‘I shouldn’t let them figure out that I know them.’

I calmly parted my lips.

I intended to say that I had no idea what Roasted Chestnut meant—that this was all completely new to me.

But just as I was about to speak, a tendril from Creature No. 1 slithered out and wrapped around my forearm.

I felt a gentle caress, as if it were trying to gauge my reaction.

The words died in my throat. My parted lips closed on their own.

Orca smiled at me as I stood there, rendered speechless.

"We all dreamed of you, Roasted Chestnut. We waited for you to come to us."

Perhaps it was because I had already been through this with Clean3.

Now that reality and the game were merging, for some reason, I didn’t feel much fear.

A flood of other emotions and thoughts kept rising up, completely burying any sense of fear. I had always been the only one who remembered.

I had been the only one reminiscing about and dwelling on the moments we shared.

But now, we shared the same memory.

Perhaps this time…

Just this once, maybe I could change the True Ending.

Meeting the affectionate gaze directed at me, I finally gave my answer.

“I had a dream, too.”

I might come to regret this answer.

But I felt I would regret it even more if I gave any other reply.

“A dream featuring you, Orca, and the other creatures.”

I looked up at Orca with earnest eyes.

“That’s why I came here. I wanted to help. You might be suspicious, but could you trust me just this once? I…”

I bit my lip for a moment before continuing.

“I will give you your freedom.”

The smile that had been brightening Orca’s face vanished.

He could no longer smile.

“You… you are exactly like the one in my dream.”

He studied me with a cautious gaze.

“I had wanted to meet you so badly that I even wondered if this, too, was just a dream.”

How much of the journey had Orca shared with me in that dream?

Had he been there right up until the moment I reached the True Ending?

It didn’t seem so.

If he had, he likely would have treated me differently than he was now.

Orca hesitated, then asked… “If you don’t mind, may I call you Roasted Chestnut?”

I nodded silently.

Orca extended his hand toward me.

As I clasped his outstretched hand, a smile finally returned to his face.

It seemed he had realized that this was reality, not a dream.

The warmth radiating from the hand of this creature—who possessed the nature of an orca—felt comforting.

Orca gripped my hand firmly and shook it.

“In any case, this is our first time meeting in reality, isn’t it? I’m Orca. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Roasted Chestnut!”

“The pleasure is mine, Orca.”

Just as we were shaking hands…

BOOM!

A massive, thunderous roar erupted.

Startled by the vibration, Creature No. 1—forgetting its massive size—clung to me, trying to hide behind my back.

Orca, too, was visibly startled and turned his gaze toward the source of the sound.

A series of system windows popped up before my eyes.

The escaped creatures were being subdued by the guards.

I spoke quickly.

“The others have been captured.”

“How did you know that?”

“I’ll… explain later. Orca, I have a plan.”

I hurriedly outlined my plan to him.

He seemed taken aback by the rapid-fire explanation, but true to the sharp intellect of an orca, he grasped it immediately.

“I’m counting on you. I’m going to check on the others who haven’t been subdued yet.”

“Understood. Don’t worry. But… will Roasted Chestnut be alright?”

Orca asked with a look of concern.

In truth, it didn’t seem like it would go well. But for now, there was no other option.

I quickly soothed Creature No. 1—which was clinging to my back and refusing to let go—before speaking.

“I’m fine. I’ll be going now.”

I sprinted straight toward the exercise yard and hurriedly sent a message to Je-Hyun-oh.

I checked the sky, but Je-Hyun-oh—who had been flying around just moments ago—was nowhere to be seen.

‘Where did he go?’

There was no way he could have been captured, yet I couldn’t fathom why he had vanished.

Just then, a system window popped up again.

I picked up my pace.

I headed toward the place where Creature No. 12—who hadn’t been caught yet—might have fled.

I stopped in my tracks while rushing toward the coastal cliffs.

A creature with the lower body of a spider and the upper body of a woman was being hauled up the cliff, wrapped in countless chains.

No. 12 had already been discovered.

‘How did they find her?’

I couldn’t believe the guards had pinpointed No. 12’s location so quickly.

No, it wasn’t just No. 12.

The other creatures were also being subdued, as if their escape routes had all been predicted.

Against the backdrop of her struggling form, the system window displayed a cruel notification.

Upon seeing the quest failure notification, Dominic, who had been quietly watching, spoke up in surprise.

“Roasted Chestnut. I see a notification that you’ve failed. Does this mean you’ll be tormented by the guards now?”

But I couldn’t even bring myself to properly look at the words announcing the quest failure.

No. 12 was thrashing in agony, likely due to the pain from the chains.

One of the guards was sent flying by a spider-like leg that flailed wildly during the struggle.

Another guard immediately drew his weapon and cocked it.

It was a gun designed to kill creatures.

Frozen in place, I hurriedly dashed forward.

“Wait!”

Only when I reached the edge of the cliff did I realize the man holding the gun was the Chief of Security.

Panting heavily, I stepped in front of Subject 12.

The lips beneath his gray metal mask parted slowly.

“Little Lamb.”

He spoke to me in a chilling voice.

“It seems you failed to become a guard.”

The Chief of Security realized I hadn’t become his colleague the moment he saw me.

I was wearing the guard’s uniform, but I wasn’t wearing the metal mask.

My appearance made it obvious that I hadn’t completed the rookie guard training course.

“How did you escape the training grounds?”

The Chief of Security asked the question as the suspicion meter rose.

I was gasping for air, having run non-stop to get here.

I steadied my breathing as best I could before speaking.

“Chief of Security. Please, do not execute the creatures.”

“You didn’t answer my question, Little Lamb.”

“At the training grounds…”

Just as I was about to offer an excuse…

Static—a voice crackled over the radio.

—Did you find the medic?

The poor audio quality of the walkie-talkie made it impossible to identify the speaker, but the fact that they were speaking down to the Chief of Security was startling.

Given the Chief of Security’s position within the prison, there was no one who would speak to him in such a condescending manner.

Except for one person.

The Warden.

While playing Cell-X, one rarely encounters the Warden.

Since the Chief of Security held the actual power in the prison, interactions with him were far more frequent.

“I’ve found the Medic. I’m bringing him in right now.”

While I stood there blinking in bewilderment, the Chief of Security gestured to the guards.

Two guards grabbed me by the arms, and I was promptly dragged off to the Warden’s office.

‘Well, at least I stopped the execution.’

With the Warden summoning me, the plan to kill Creature No. 12 had been put on hold.

‘But how did the guards pinpoint the creature’s location?’

Even I, having played the game, didn’t know the creature’s exact location when the prison break event triggered.

The standard strategy was to guess which of the possible locations it might be in and check them one by one, or to get help from another creature.

Yet now, it felt as though the guards knew every single place the creature could possibly go.

I wondered if it was some kind of anomaly, but it still didn’t make sense.

‘It’s also strange that the warden is looking for the Medic.’

With so many errors occurring, I couldn’t even figure out where the problem lay.

I racked my brain as the guards dragged me along.

The door to the warden’s office was made of a material that looked noticeably high-quality compared to the rest of the prison.

After a brief knock, the Chief of Security spoke in a respectful tone.

“We’re coming in.”

Then, he opened the door.

The warden’s office was furnished with high-end pieces that matched the quality of the door.

Beyond a spacious desk, I saw a man sitting with his back to us.

He wore a uniform that differed slightly from those of the regular guards.

A cape draped over one shoulder of his uniform was a distinctive feature.

The Chief of Security saluted and spoke.

“I’ve brought the Medic you asked for.”

The chair slowly swiveled around.

When I came face-to-face with the warden, my jaw dropped.

He… wasn’t wearing a metal mask.

What covered the warden’s face was a white mask of cognitive suppression.