Trapped in the Idol Universe

Focused on forcing the door, Gwakhyeol might not have noticed, but the VJ saw it clearly: Roy was running off in the opposite direction.

‘Why on earth...?’

Roy was such an unpredictable contestant that the VJ was used to anything he did—but this move was especially baffling. Confused, the VJ nevertheless reflexively tried to zoom in, remembering Junseo’s repeated insistence not to miss a single moment.

But before he could lock focus,

Pshsh!

Something discharged, and the corridor instantly filled with white smoke. A fire extinguisher had gone off.

“Cough, cough!”

The flustered VJ waved his hand to clear his view, but it was no use—the screen remained a blur of mist. With vision cut, his hearing sharpened. From far off came a dull thud.

Kraang!

It sounded like something hard striking something relatively soft.

‘No way, did I Roi do something again...?’

Moments earlier, he’d glimpsed Roy smashing a fiend’s head with a steel pipe—so brutal that the monster hadn’t even cried out before dying instantly. Sure enough, the howls in the corridor had noticeably lessened. Should he risk diving into the smoke to confirm?

He hesitated—then Gwakhyeol, having just forced the door open, flung the emergency stairwell wide and called out,

“Leader! Hurry—”

But then he saw the scene and froze.

“...Huh? Leader, where did you go?”

He shrugged, eyes wide, indicating he hadn’t the faintest idea. The smoke had already billowed into their stairwell. Gwakhyeol, equally disoriented, stood staring into the dark corridor.

After a moment, urgent footsteps pounded toward them.

“Leader...?”

“Kiiieeek!”

Impossible. He’d at first thought it was Roy’s voice—but the only thing returning was a fiend’s shriek.

“AHH!”

Sensing mortal danger, Gwakhyeol lunged into the emergency stairwell.

Kraang!

He slammed the door shut just in time. His hand trembled on the handle. After wrestling the lock into place, he sagged to the floor, gasping.

“Huff... Huff.”

What on earth had happened? He panted wildly, listening to the fiend’s wails on the other side, dread washing over him.

‘What about the Leader?’

Could it be...? A gruesome vision of Roy being savagely killed flashed in Gwakhyeol’s mind.

‘Am I... am I the one who survived by abandoning the Leader?’

Good God.

He covered his mouth, horrified. Roy had carried him on his back to save him—yet he’d just closed the door on him.

‘What a piece of garbage I am!’

He might as well have murdered Roy himself. Ripping at his hair, Gwakhyeol resolved that surviving alone meant nothing. Their team was doomed anyway. As painful as it was, his only atonement was to follow his comrade to the end.

He leapt to his feet, face set, and gripped the doorknob.

‘I... I can do this...!’

Clenching his shaking fist, he steeled himself, then

Riiip!

He flung the door open and charged out, shouting,

“Hey, you fiends—!”

✧

Meanwhile, the missing F-rank captain clung to the building’s exterior wall, scaling it desperately.

Fuck.

Sometimes he wondered if he’d been a spider in his past life—otherwise, why so much wall-climbing?

“Kiiieeek!”

“Kiiieek!”

Below, two fiends had gathered, waiting for him to fall. They’d heard the commotion on the second floor and come flocking.

‘I never expected them to turn around like that.’

Moments earlier, Roy had trailed the wheelchair fiend all the way to the end of the corridor. Yet it had stopped with three steps to spare, turned around slowly instead of attacking. All at once, Roy had understood: the fiend couldn’t leave its patrol radius. But by the time he realized it, their eyes had met.

“Kiiieeek!”

A piercing shriek rang through the corridor. One fiend howled, and another nearby answered in kind. Roy knew he needed to reunite with Gwakhyeol—but to cross to the opposite side now would be suicide.

With no alternative, Roy slipped past the wheelchair, hugged the far wall, and moved to the corridor’s end.

‘He’ll dodge just fine on his own.’

He’d told Gwakhyeol to wait inside the emergency exit—so if nothing went wrong, Gwakhyeol should be safe by now. And as long as Gwakhyeol didn’t scream, the stairwell fiend wouldn’t leave the stairs to chase him.

Cornered, Roy glared at the fiend reaching for him. Its appearance was the stuff of nightmares.

‘Fuck me.’

On tiptoe, he pressed against the wall and fumbled for a weapon. In the corner sat an old fire extinguisher. With only keys and his body at his disposal, he seized it without hesitation. Then—either the safety pin had been removed or it had rusted away—white powder sprayed everywhere.

Psshh!

Startled, he swung the extinguisher blindly.

Kraang!

It smacked the fiend’s head with a dull thud—perfect timing, as the fiend had just leaned in.

‘Damn, no luck on my part.’

At least it wasn’t his fault. Who told it to stand right in front of me?

Ahead, a broken window offered an escape. The glass was shattered anyway—just brushing away the jagged edges would create a clear path.

Clang!

Roy smashed the remaining glass with his elbow and slipped outside, clinging to the wall.

‘That was too close.’

But he thought he’d seen another fiend sprinting toward him—had it returned to its patrol point? In the panic, he hadn’t noticed.

‘Better this way.’

Roy now stood on a small ledge outside, stepping from a pipe toward the ruined metal staircase. The stairs were corroded and rusted, unrecognizable from their original form. Sections were missing entirely—he wondered if they’d even hold his weight.

But there was no choice. Soon the wheelchair fiend would split into two, making a return to the second floor impossible.

‘If I step and fall... well, I’ll worry about that later.’

Whether I die this way or that, I’m out anyway.

‘It’s fine. I won’t actually die.’

Roy edged his foot onto the broken stairs, inching forward. The fiends’ cries from below almost broke his concentration, but he gritted his teeth and focused. At last he reached his target—a ledge just within arm’s reach.

‘Please hold.’

He took a deep breath, braced on the wall, and kicked off toward the railing.

Kraang!

The impact shattered the railing, sending a sheet of metal careening downward. A fiend below was struck and clawed savagely at the spinning metal.

‘Fuck me.’

Roy couldn’t help cursing at the mangled railing. Clinging to what remained, he gripped the twisted iron with trembling hands. His mouth ran dry at the thought that it could have been him shredded instead of the railing.

Eyes shut tight, he forced himself to pull up. Only when his foot landed on the stairs again did he allow himself to exhale.

‘This damned survival show.’

He’d thought training was manageable—he’d been wrong. Roy just wanted to escape these crumbling stairs.

Thankfully, the stairway to the third floor looked intact. Though rusted, it was better than the heap below.

Creak, squeak—

Each step set his nerves on edge. He hurried up to the third-floor corridor’s window ledge—

Creeeeak—

Suddenly the stairs tilted.

“...!”

Losing his grip, Roy rocketed upward and managed to catch the windowsill of the room at the corridor’s end, not the hallway floor.

Kraaaash!

A thunderous crash followed—more intense than before. He felt fiends racing up from both the second and third floors.

‘I’m screwed.’

Lucky Roy had run out of luck. Since entering, he’d spent his time carrying Gwakhyeol, sprinting, clinging, and now this—no fate left to spare.

With no other choice, he reluctantly slipped into the adjacent room to hide.

Slide—

He opened the door to find...

“Ah? I thought you’d come into the corridor. You must be lucky.”

There, behind iron bars, stood the Pluton Guild Master.

“...?”

Though it appeared to be a cage, inside was a monitor room full of dozens of CCTV screens. It seemed the Guild Master had been watching their every move.

Momentarily stunned by the unexpected reunion, Roy recalled his mission. He landed lightly in the room and approached Bella.

“I thought you’d be downstairs.”

Bella shrugged. When Roy showed her the keys he’d retrieved, she whistled softly.

Click—

As the lock released, she smiled and beckoned him forward.

“You did well.”

In that instant, the claustrophobic, foul-smelling room vanished like a mirage. Roy found himself back in the waiting room he’d occupied before entering.

‘I made it.’

He exhaled in relief and glanced sideways. Next to him, Gwakhyeol stood with eyes clenched shut and fists clenched, body hunched tight. Just as Roy dashed to embrace him,

“Hyung! We—”

“Argh!”

Gwakhyeol fainted on the spot.