novelraw Chapter 82 : Chapter 82
Chapter 82 : Chapter 82
Chapter 82. World of Art (2)
One step, two steps.
Woo Yeong-tae and Lisa stepped carefully with narrow strides.
They held each other's hand with one hand, and extended their other hands to both sides to touch the walls respectively.
While the two were walking along the form of the walls like that.
Woo Yeong-tae said.
"…Who on earth could it be? The person who locked us in here."
"……."
"Why on earth for what reason did they put us in a place like this……."
"Mr. Woo Yeong-tae."
"Yes?!"
"If an arrow is stuck in your body, you have to pull out the arrow first. Not worry about where the arrow flew from."
"……."
"First, let's move forward. Let's think about the next thing after that."
Woo Yeong-tae nodded and started moving forward again.
Their steps were very slow.
It was because they couldn't step rashly as they could see nothing.
Still, they moved forward.
How many steps did they walk like that?
Splash.
The two were startled by the wetness touching their soles.
"Hik……!"
"What……?!"
Nothing particular happened.
Judging by the texture touching their bodies, it was just water.
The two stopped for a moment and discussed.
"…It's water, right?"
"I suppose so."
A brief pause.
Lisa said.
"…Let's keep going."
"How do you know what's ahead?"
"Does an answer come out if we stand still?"
Woo Yeong-tae couldn't refute.
Lisa continued.
"I don't know what lies beneath this water. But one thing is certain: I am holding Mr. Woo Yeong-tae, and Mr. Woo Yeong-tae is holding me. Right?"
"……."
"Let's move forward alternately. Just in case one falls into a weird place, the other can pull them out."
"…Good."
The one who stepped forward first was Woo Yeong-tae.
He took one more step into the water.
Next was Lisa, next was Woo Yeong-tae again.
As they advanced into the water, the water level gradually rose.
The water surface that touched their ankles had risen past their knees to their waists before they knew it.
As the water surface got closer like that, the smell of water began to creep up.
The calm water surface broke, and the stench trapped in the water began to leak out.
A stench beyond imagination.
The one who reacted first was Lisa's side.
"Ugh!"
Lisa gagged over the water surface.
Woo Yeong-tae asked.
"Are you okay?!"
"…It's just dry heaving. Let's keep going."
One hand holding each other, one hand touching the wall.
Since there was no hand to block the nose, there was no choice but to hold breath and breathe through the mouth to block the stench.
As a result, they could avoid smelling the stench, but they couldn't avoid the invasion of the stench.
The roof of the mouth and tongue started to sting unbearably.
‘Damn it……!’
Woo Yeong-tae felt deep anger soaring from inside.
He couldn't even come up with a hypothesis as to why on earth he was doing this.
It would have been rather comfortable if someone was cutting open his belly instead.
Ah, that bastard is trying to take out my organs and sell them, he would have been able to at least understand.
But now is not the case.
Thrown into a situation where understanding itself is impossible, what on earth am I doing right now…….
"Kyaaak!"
At that moment, a scream burst from Lisa's mouth.
Woo Yeong-tae also asked in surprise.
"Are you okay?!"
"B, beneath the water……!"
"Yes?"
"I stepped on something squishy……!"
Something squishy and slippery was stepped on under her foot.
But a situation where they couldn't see beneath the water at all.
Therefore, they had no choice but to guess its identity only by touch.
Instantly, all kinds of terrible imaginations flashed through Lisa's head.
Apart from her firm will, a feeling like her stomach turning upside down.
Panic.
Her legs gave way just like that.
Splash!
Lisa sank into the water just like that, and Woo Yeong-tae urgently supported and pulled her out.
"Are you okay?!"
"This… in the water… corpses……."
"Don't imagine rashly. It's probably nothing."
Woo Yeong-tae moved forward while supporting Lisa.
Soon he also stepped on something in the water.
Something hard and long, or something sinking squishily.
The more he stepped on, the only thing that came to mind was one thing.
Corpses.
But there was no choice.
They had no choice but to move forward.
Faster, they moved forward faster.
Their backs were covered in sweat, and drool flowed down from their mouths.
Short but seemingly eternal march.
And finally, the two walked out of the water.
They had reached the end.
Woo Yeong-tae reached out and fumbled ahead.
What lay before them was a wall.
And on that wall…….
‘It’s a doorknob!’
Woo Yeong-tae grabbed the doorknob, turned it, and pushed with all his might.
Light pouring through the door gap.
The two walked into the light with their eyes tightly closed.
And collapsed just like that.
Zzzt!
"Kkeuk……!"
"Keok……!"
Electric shock rising from under their feet scorched the bodies of the two.
The two collapsed with their muscles stiffening just like that.
"Damn it……!"
Woo Yeong-tae spat out curses and examined the surroundings.
This place was a large room.
A dry and pure white room, and a room where something was displayed in plenty.
Woo Yeong-tae muttered.
"Mannequins……?"
It was a scenery he felt like he saw when working at a department store warehouse.
Mannequins lined up in rows, replacement arms, legs, and heads scattered here and there.
At that moment, someone walked from the front.
Click-clack footsteps hit the ears of the collapsed ones.
"Both of you suffered a lot."
What was heard next was a clear and lucid woman's voice.
Woo Yeong-tae and Lisa raised their heads and looked at the owner of the voice.
She was a beauty enough to take one's breath away.
Smoothly combed down black hair, deep burgundy lips, pale white skin.
And she was leaning on a cane in one hand.
Woo Yeong-tae asked toward that woman.
"What are you……!"
She smiled brightly and answered.
"I am called Francis Appel. Just in case you're curious, let me tell you in advance, I brought you all here."
"You bit……!"
The moment Woo Yeong-tae raised his body and rushed toward Francis.
Francis poked him with the cane she was leaning on.
Zzzt!
"Aaaack!"
At the electricity bursting from the tip of the cane, Woo Yeong-tae tumbled on the floor again.
Francis said.
"Mm-mm, mm, no. How dare a model talk back to the painter."
"Why… why are you doing this……!"
"I must have explained everything? You all came here as models for my painting."
"Don't bullshit… aaack!"
After scorching Woo Yeong-tae one more time, Francis approached toward Lisa.
And looking down at her, she said.
"Oh my, how pretty. Even though I'm a woman, I like pretty women."
"…What on earth do you want?"
"Let me tell you one thing first, those mannequins aren't mannequins."
"…Wax figures?"
"Mm-mm, no. Where in the world would there be wax figures made of protein and fat."
That the things resembling mannequins were actually not mannequins.
Woo Yeong-tae and Lisa only then realized the terrible meaning of those words.
And also that they had entered hell.
Nausea rose from inside.
Whether they did or not, Francis chattered while smiling refreshingly.
"However! If you do as I say, I will let one of the two go first."
"……!"
Woo Yeong-tae and Lisa's eyes wavered.
Francis continued.
"Even if you can't move your bodies due to electric shock, you can move your hands, right?"
"……."
"Now, we are going to play rock-paper-scissors. I will let the winner go first."
"……!"
Lisa and Woo Yeong-tae looked at each other.
Both of their eyes were trembling.
Lisa said.
"…You aren't going to be swayed by that crazy bitch's bullshit, are you?"
"……."
"Don't do anything. If you don't want to be swayed by that murderer bitch……."
At that moment, Francis cut off her words and barged in.
"Now, loser if not shown, rock-paper-scissors!"
The clear voice pushed the backs of the two.
After Francis's shout passed like that.
Woo Yeong-tae threw rock, Lisa threw paper.
Both took the action of rock-paper-scissors.
Lisa won.
Despair flashed on Woo Yeong-tae's face for a moment.
But that was also momentary.
Woo Yeong-tae said toward Lisa with a face mixed with resignation and relief.
"…Congratulations. Go out first."
At that moment, Francis approached toward Lisa and said.
"You won?"
Shuruk!
At that moment, a pitch-black line popping out from somewhere wrapped around Lisa's neck and lifted her up.
Lisa's body floated up.
"Keok……!"
Lisa struggled with both feet while floating in the air, then soon went limp.
Fainted.
Woo Yeong-tae shouted in fluster.
"Wait! You said you would let the winner go……."
"I decide where I let them go from."
"……?!"
"I could be letting her go from this life."
"You crazy……!"
Dragging the fainted Lisa by her hair, Francis said.
"Mr. Woo Yeong-tae, you may have seen artworks, but you've never seen an artwork being made, right?"
"You……!"
"You are a lucky person. To be able to see that wonderful sight with your two eyes."
Thud!
Francis threw Lisa onto a stainless steel operating table.
"Watch well from there. The process of an artwork being made."
Cheujeujeujeu-
From behind Francis's head, those black lines from just a moment ago rose up squirming.
* * *
Whoosh-
Riman crossed the city lightly jumping between buildings.
Through leaps and landings using the shock release function of
While doing so, Riman recalled the situation Woo Yeong-tae would be facing.
‘Surely he must have undergone the trial of that black water.’
Francis Appel.
That crazy woman locks the victims she caught in a long room where not a single point of light enters.
The floor of the room draws a very gentle U-shape, so the center is sunken deep.
There, Francis throws human corpses and fills it with water.
The victims waking up after that have no choice but to cross that terrible black puddle of water by joining forces with each other.
In that extreme situation, fear binds them, and an incomparably sticky bond grows in a short time.
In the darkness, they become friends.
However, what waits for them who escaped hell like that is a woman's bright smiling face.
But one shouldn't be deceived by that beauty.
She is a mad person calling herself an artist, Francis Appel.
After subduing the victims caught like that at once, Francis starts the work of making an ‘artwork’ with one of them.
Dismantling another victim to pieces in front of a victim.
In front of a friend, disassembling a friend.
The scream, despair the victim vomits while watching that process.
Francis enjoys carrying out art happily on top of that.
Using someone's terrible scream, that despair as fuel to indulge in her own artistic pleasure.
‘Crazy bastard…….’
Of course, those with such pathological artistic spirit existed in the world Riman originally lived in too.
But most of them stop at killing wild animals or small animals, and dare not kill people.
Even if they kill, they get caught quickly.
Why, because they don't have power.
But this world is different.
This place is a world where superpowers and magic exist.
A place where the limit of power an individual can possess is distantly high.
If a mad person possesses such power here, that twisted desire runs wild endlessly.
Francis Appel, she was exactly such a case.
‘Found it.’
Burgundy van.
Scanning the neighborhood thoroughly through Saya's vision, it was found surprisingly easily.
‘Following those guys is the most convenient…….’
Currently, Riman doesn't know the location of Francis's studio.
Because even in the game, the location of her studio changed randomly every playthrough.
Furthermore, Francis had discarded the motorcycle stolen from Noksan somewhere, so he couldn't track the location either.
‘First, I have to raid those guys and find out the studio location.’
While thinking so, the van stopped by the roadside.
Riman approached toward the van quietly.
At that moment.
"Uh? You……?"
The man riding in the van saw Riman and his eyes twinkled.