"I don't have the luxury to worry about someone else's life anymore."
I sharpened my cold, calculating reason. My sole objective was to survive and escape this bizarre space.
To do that, I had to perfectly grasp the rules governing this place. I carefully took in the hallway of Exit 0, where I had looped back once again.
First, the left wall. The first poster featured a steering wheel with an 'Xyota' logo and a bottle of sake. The second was an emergency exit sign where the stick figure was slipping and falling. The third was a public etiquette notice with a red 'X' over a man's mouth. The last one, the fourth, was a non-smoking poster where the smoke rising from a woman's lips formed the shape of a person screaming.
I shifted my gaze to inspect the right wall.
A small wall door containing a red fire extinguisher, a firmly closed emergency exit, and a grey steel cleaning supply closet. The layout was simple.
I stood there for about three minutes, steadying my breath.
Click, clack.
From the corner ahead, the unsettling sound of high heels echoed again. It was the woman in the neat suit I had seen earlier.
Staying pressed against the wall, I observed her gait, her gaze, and even the way her clothes were fitted. I was certain that this woman was also one of the horrific anomalies produced by this Innate Domain.
Fortunately, in the first hallway, I sensed nothing out of place from the woman or the surrounding objects. This was definitely the 'correct' original. Avoiding the woman, I walked straight ahead—cautiously, but with determination.
The space distorted once more, and a new sign appeared above my head.
[ ← Way Out: Exit 1 ]
"Alright, I think I get it!"
The satisfaction of understanding a rule washed over me. Keeping my guard up, I began to inspect the hallway of Exit 1.
Four posters on the left. Xyota wheel, check. Slipping exit man, check. Red 'X' etiquette, check. Face in the smoke, check. No issues there. Next, check the woman in the suit.
'Is it the right side then?'
Small door for the fire extinguisher, emergency exit, cleaning closet.
Wait, the shape of the red Kanji written on the fire extinguisher door was subtly different from before. In the spot where it should have clearly said '消火器' (Fire Extinguisher), there was a bizarre-looking character: '消火嚚' (Fire Fool).
"...Was the fire extinguisher Kanji always written like that?"
I tilted my head. However, as someone who was a full-blooded Korean before transmigrating, unfamiliar Japanese Kanji were basically just curvy drawings to me.
"Whatever, it's probably just a different font. What's the worst that could happen?"
Dismissing it as trivial, I boldly walked straight ahead. I had judged that there was no anomaly.
But immediately after the space warped, the sign that appeared before my eyes seemed to cruelly mock my wrong answer.
[ ← Way Out: Exit 0 ]
"Ugh, you absolute moron!!"
I clutched my hair and let out a harsh groan.
It wasn't a different font. That damn Kanji was the anomaly. They say ignorance is a sin, but I didn't realize it would be a life-or-death gamble like this.
"Never, I am never making a mistake like that again...!"
I bit my lip and glared at the hallway of Exit 0 with bloodshot eyes. No more mercy.
Back at Exit 0, I quickly sharpened my senses.
I checked the right wall where I had just made the fatal error. Fire extinguisher Kanji, normal. Emergency exit and cleaning closet, tightly closed. All clear!
The suited woman walking from ahead and her expressionless face were the same as before.
'Then it's back to the posters on the left....'
Scanning the four posters, my eyes stopped at the second one.
"...Wait. Did that etiquette poster always have its mouth shut that tightly?"
The lips that should have been slightly parted beneath the red 'X' were now clamped shut with an uncanny pressure.
"Nope! Not a chance! I'm out!"
Without a moment's hesitation, I whipped my body around and sprinted back toward where I came from.
The view distorted, and accompanied by a sickening tinnitus, a new sign emerged.
[ ← Way Out: Exit 1 ]
"JU-KYAAAAAAAK!" The woman's head was rotated 180 degrees! Run, run!
[ ← Way Out: Exit 2 ]
"Phew... my method was right."
The moment my hypothesis turned into a certainty, I picked up the pace.
I checked the hallway leading from Exit 2 quickly and thoroughly. Posters on both sides, normal. Woman, normal. I immediately headed straight to the next space.
[ ← Way Out: Exit 3 ]
"Good, good. Not much further now."
I scanned the left and right walls with practiced speed. No issues. Now, I just had to wait for the sound of the woman's footsteps rounding the corner.
G-g-g-gi-gik.... THUMP, THUMP. THUMP.
"...Huh?"
That wasn't the sound of high heels. What rounded the corner wasn't a woman in a neat suit, but a hideous, twisted Three-headed Six-armed Monster.
For a split second, my heart dropped and instinctive fear washed over my body. But my mind remained cold as ice.
'That monster appearing so blatantly is the anomaly itself!'
I immediately turned and bolted with everything I had.
The space twisted, and above my panting head, the number I had been waiting for finally appeared.
[ ← Way Out: Exit 4 ]
"Finally...!"
My legs almost gave out, but I forced back the chuckle of relief that tried to escape. One more correct answer and I'd be out of this exhausting space. Now that the goal was within reach, a strange sense of composure began to set in.
'While I'm at it, why don't I test this Cursed Spirit's Innate Domain to suit my tastes?'
I quickly finished checking the left and right walls.
On the non-smoking poster at the very end, the thin cigarette the woman held had been replaced with a thick cigar. A blatant anomaly. The 'correct' answer was already determined: 'Retreat'.
With this newfound breathing room, a sudden, useless curiosity reared its head.
Earlier, that woman had dragged me with an abnormal physical strength. I wondered if she was a mere phantom created by this space, or a physical reproduction.
As the woman passed in front of me, I reached out a finger and poked her chest.
"...Ugh."
Instead of soft skin, my fingertip throbbed as if I had poked cold marble or solid steel.
"What, she's rock hard. Disappointing."
That was enough Zenin trash behavior for one day. Clicking my tongue, I focused on my true objective.
My real goal was my Cursed Technique—Mahoraga's Dharma Wheel.
'What if I bring out the Dharma Wheel inside this barrier and adapt to the rules of the Innate Domain itself? If I can complete the analysis of the flow of Cursed Energy and the interpretation of space, could it serve as a clue to awakening my own Domain Expansion?'
It was a gamble. It was insanity.
The moment I openly flared my Cursed Energy within this domain, that woman would likely transform into a monster and rush to tear me apart. But based on my experience so far, I had formed a hypothesis.
A rational deduction about the system of this space.
This hallway was a type of loop.
The moment I entered the path toward an Exit n, the woman spawned at the far end of the hallway. She would walk slowly from the opposite end and seemingly despawn at the beginning of the hallway I had entered from.
This cycle repeated until Exit 4.
In that case...
'If I activate my Cursed Technique at the very instant the woman disappears completely, from which direction would the monster tracking me spawn?'
I took a deep breath and weighed the possibilities.
If it appeared behind me—the direction of retreat—it would be a pain, but I could just sprint forward and start again from Exit 0. But what if it appeared in front of me—the direction of progress?
I would dodge its attacks using my reflexes for as long as possible to force Mahoraga's adaptation, and then simply flee to clear Exit 4.
"The risk is high... but the reward is too great to pass up."
A grin crept onto my face.
The woman walked toward the end of the hallway, gradually fading from my sight. At the exact moment her silhouette began to melt and vanish into the darkness.
"Come out."
I let the Cursed Energy I had suppressed throughout my entire body explode in a violent burst.