Baek Saheon opened his eyes.

In fact, it would be more accurate to say that he hadn't really slept at all.

'Damn it.'

Since entering the "Horizon Lodge," he'd been on edge, trying to stay alive and find a way out while keeping himself in one piece.

Half of it, of course, involved trying to please Kim Soleum by reading his mood.

'Son of a bitch.'

He felt no shame. It was all about survival.

...Even now, the thought of going to Kim Soleum's room was part of the same reasoning.

'I need to gather some information.'

That crazy guy definitely knew something. He needed to squeeze out whatever he could to prepare some kind of secret advantage for survival.

But...

"......"

Was Kim Soleum really insane?

More precisely, why had he... spared him?

Baek Saheon already knew the answer. Even though Kim Soleum could have killed him or used him as a scapegoat during the exhibition, he hadn't done it.

He had played some tricks on him, but in the end...

'No!'

It was probably just because it was fun. Keeping him alive would bring more variables and make things more interesting, right?

Baek Saheon quickly reached a conclusion. He had never met anyone like him in his life...

'...Still, I don't think he's lying about the information.'

With a strange trust, Baek Saheon opened his door...

There was something right in front of it.

"...!!"

The lodge, now shrouded in the evening darkness, made it hard to distinguish the silhouette at first, but then it became clear.

A man of similar height to his own.

...Kim Soleum.

'Shit!'

He was startled but, honestly, also a little relieved.

It was better than dealing with a stranger.

At least, he probably wouldn't try to kill him.

"Hey..."

Then, his eyes, adjusted to the dark, clearly made out the calm expression on Kim Soleum’s face. In his hand was an axe.

"......"

'What?'

An axe.

For a moment, Baek Saheon almost rubbed his eyes, but then a plausible guess crossed his mind.

"Did you bring that... to prepare for the serial killer?"

Suddenly, another thought crossed his mind.

The text messages Kim Soleum had been sending.

[Beware of the serial killer.]

Could that have been...

A warning?

"Goodbye."

The axe fell toward his head.

***

The next morning.

As the couple stepped out of their room, the heavy sound of rain filled the air, and they realized there was a familiar melody mixed in with the rain.

Hmm, hmm-hmm, uh-uhm, hmm-hmm-hmm.

A hum.

"Isn’t this the song that came on when my car's GPS broke?"

"Wow, yeah, I think so... Is this playing on the radio around here?"

Still breathing in the crisp, early morning air that hung in the lodge, they made their way down the hallway, cassette tape in hand, as if it were a treasure, heading toward the kitchen...

"AAAGH!!"

They froze, staring at something in the kitchen hearth.

The hearth, filled to the brim as though someone had stuffed it with fireworks and toys and set them off, was strangely packed.

Burnt charcoal.

And two crooked sticks poking out of the charred remains, one on each side.

At the ends of the sticks...

Sneakers.

A half-burned human foot.

"AAAGH!!"

"Oh my God! Is that a person!?"

"Oh no, no, what happened, no!!"

The shrieks and cries echoed through the lodge, and one by one, people came rushing down the stairs.

And joined in the screams.

"What... what happened... AAAGH!!"

"Ahhh!!"

The university students and the middle-aged driver were in complete panic.

One person, with a face as pale as a ghost, even collapsed to the floor.

It was the young man who had claimed to be a company worker and had communicated with them in writing due to a sore throat.

But... wasn't there supposed to be two of them, the company workers?

‘No way!’

The couple pointed toward the foot in the hearth.

"Wasn't that the young man who came with you... Wait, the one with the blindfold...?"

The company worker's burned sneakers seemed to catch the couple’s attention, and he covered his mouth, barely managing to nod.

"Ah!!"

A person had died.

Someone they had spoken to just yesterday!

As the reality set in, loud shouts and sighs filled the room again.

"Call 911 immediately!"

"What the hell is this?!"

"I told you, don’t use old kitchens like this! A little spark and it can turn into an accident like this!"

But there was a small whisper in their minds.

‘Was this really an accident?’

Could a person really burn like that without the fire spreading elsewhere...?

In such a gruesome way?

‘Could it be...?’

In their panic, people ran to make calls.

And shortly after...

A chill ran down their spines.

"My, my call won’t go through! There's no dial tone!"

"Where’s the manager? The manager! Someone’s dead here!"

But the lodge keeper, who had promised to take good care of them, now seemed like a lie.

The torrential rain continued to pour down in the dark mountain forest.

Inside the lodge, it was just them and the humming...

"......"

"......"

Hmm, hmm-hmm, uh-uhm, hmm...

Outside, it was pouring rain so heavily that it seemed like a nightmare, and there was even a landslide the night before, with debris covering the bus stop.

"The road... it’s completely buried."

"My car!!"

And that was when they realized.

Hmm, hmm-hmm, uh-uhm, hmm...

Something was wrong.

"This... this was... it was playing here."

"......"

Next to the corpse stuck in the hearth, the small, old analog cassette player was still humming.

Hmm, hmm-hmm, uh-uhm, hmm...

Click.

One of the university students turned off the cassette player and pulled out what was inside.

An old ivory-colored tape.

"...!"

The pale-faced company worker pulled out a notebook and shakily wrote something with trembling hands.

[It looks like this cassette belonged to the company worker...]

"My... my God."

That was when the nightmare truly began.

***

Lunchtime.

The lodge keeper had prepared a neat, hearty meal with soup and rice, but, as if by unspoken agreement, no one touched it.

Instead, everyone munched on energy bars and snacks they'd brought, wandering around the lodge, looking for spots where their smartphones might finally work.

Of course, there were no results.

The mountain lodge, isolated and cut off from any connection to the outside world due to the torrential rain, felt gloomy and foreboding...

‘This is insane!’

One of the university students, fiddling with a social media app that wouldn’t open, sat in the living room, impatiently turning off his phone.

“Damn it!”

“Ha, you’re really scared, aren’t you?”

His friends from the hiking club, sitting nearby, pushed each other playfully while staring at the half-burned body in the hearth, giggling.

They snapped a few pictures, joking around, but their appetite had clearly vanished, as they hadn’t even touched their snacks or calorie bars.

Still, they seemed more relaxed than the other guests, who were clearly terrified.

They trusted the numbers.

‘There are three of us, so we’re fine.’

Even if there was someone trying to kill people, they reasoned, the murderer probably wouldn’t target the group with the most people.

‘They’ll go for the loners, or the ones left behind first.’

With that thought, their nervousness eased a little.

“Hey…”

The university student was about to chat with his friend when, suddenly, a peanut chocolate bar was shoved in front of him.

He turned to see the company worker, pale, holding up a notebook.

[Would you like some? I don’t think I can eat anymore…]

“Eh? No thanks.”

He responded curtly, but one of his friends giggled.

“He can’t eat peanuts.”

[Ah… sorry.]

The company worker, looking even more downcast, quietly sat back down on the couch.

Wasn’t he a manager? At first, he’d seemed rather imposing, but after witnessing his colleague’s death, he now looked faint and weak.

‘He’s scared.’

He now looked like someone who’d crumble with a few hits.

“Hey, wanna go for one?”

“Yeah. I’m losing it, damn it.”

Meanwhile, the two friends briefly disappeared outside for a smoke.

The company worker, still fiddling with his non-functioning smartphone, glanced darkly at the hearth, then climbed up to the second floor.

Silence returned.

“……”

The university student was left alone.

It felt unsettling.

‘This is the part in a movie where the attack usually happens.’

He sat there, shaking his leg nervously, glancing around with a wary expression.

He realized the jackknife in his pocket and felt a little more at ease, but only for a moment.

‘Damn it, why did they leave?’

He finally decided to search for his friends in the backyard.

Clutching the jackknife tightly, his steps quickened as he felt the hairs on his neck stand up.

He opened the back door to the backyard, stepping into the rain.

Click.

The air smelled damp.

‘They must be under the roof.’

They wouldn’t be out in the rain to smoke. So, the university student planned to walk around the roof and head toward the storage area where his friends were likely hiding.

But the deeper he walked, the stranger it felt.

Something sharp and unpleasant hit his nose.

‘Iron?’

It smelled like rusted iron.

There were a lot of old items in the storage shed, so perhaps the rain had caused them to rust.

He thought as he turned the corner.

“Hey, Park Kyungsoo…”

Then, a pungent, iron-like stench hit him full force.

“W-what…?”

Inside the backyard shed, an old construction grinder stood.

And it looked like the machine had been able to process something other than wood.

Clunk.

The machine’s output was spilling out something that wasn’t wood.

Shredded clothes, bloodstained meat, and bones were scattered across the floor in a gruesome mess.

“……”

What was this?

What was… going on?

For a moment, his brain couldn’t process it, and it refused to accept the situation. But after a moment’s delay, the realization hit.

He had found his friends.

But now, they were shredded.

“Ughhh…!”

As panic set in, his mind overflowed with vomit and screams, but then another sound mixed in.

From an old audio player.

Hmm, hmm-hmm, uh-uhm, hmm…

The sound of the cassette tape.

“Eek!”

The university student spun around and sprinted back to the lodge, his heart racing with fear.

A chill ran through him, and he could hear the pounding of his own heart.

“Hey, student, what are you…?”

“AAAH!!”

The university student slapped away the hand that grabbed his shoulder, his voice shrill with panic.

“Don’t come near me!”

“What, what’s going on?!”

He looked up.

The faces of the people staying at the lodge were filled with confusion.

And they all had one thing in common!

‘The tape!!’

Yes!

If the murderer who did all this was after the tapes, then…?

The university student immediately started searching his pockets, pulling out his own tape.

“Look! Look at this!”

His eyes were wide, saliva flying from his mouth.

“I’m throwing this away! Take it if you want it! I— I gave up! I gave up, damn it!!”

Thwack!

He threw the tape to the floor, then ran madly back upstairs, slamming the door shut behind him.

He locked the door, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

“Huff….”

Anxiety made his eyes dart around.

In his mind, the mangled body and shattered bones kept flashing, the noise pounding in his ears.

Thud.

Thud.

Should he barricade the door with furniture?

Thud.

No, it might block the way out if he tried to escape.

Thud.

The university student stared at the old wardrobe, hesitating, then moved over to stand against the wall next to it, clutching his jackknife.

He stared at the door, waiting.

Thud…

His breath quickened, his back against the wall.

‘Come on, just try to open it…!’

Then, if they did, he could scream and swing the knife. What could they do to him if they came rushing in?

As long as he didn’t let his guard down, it would be fine.

“I won’t let them, I won’t let them…”

Muttering to himself madly...

Click.

The wardrobe opened quietly.

And the next morning, the university student would greet everyone through the wide-open door.

His body swollen and bloated, like a sausage.

From an allergic reaction.

The hiking club was no more.

“AAAHHH!!”

Within one day, one company worker and three university students were found dead.

People went into complete terror.

“Inheritance! Someone here is killing to inherit more, right? I’m sure! They’re killing us all and silencing us to take the tapes!”

“The lodge keeper’s suspicious! That psycho! He’s probably the one behind all of this?! This place…”

“It’s ghosts! We’ve all been possessed by ghosts!! Hahaha!!”

A middle-aged man, apparently losing his mind, shouted and shoved people aside as he ran out.

“AAH!”

The thunder roared in time.

No, it sounded like another noise mixed in with it.

Boom!

“...!”

“What, what’s that?!”

People looked out the window, startled by the deafening noise.

A government worker murmured gloomily.

“…It’s a landslide.”

‘Just in time…’

The landslide came rushing down.

The middle-aged man who had been running outside in a frenzy was swept away by the torrent of earth.

He screamed, and his voice faded as he was swallowed by the mud.

It was a confirmed case of being crushed to death.

Boom… Crack!

The thunder outside drowned out the humming.

Lightning flashed.

“......”

“......”

A suffocating silence filled the lodge, as the remaining four survivors stood frozen.

***

On the second night.

The couple, having searched the lodge from top to bottom for a way to contact the outside world, was returning to their room, panting.

They hadn’t found anything, but they had noticed something else.

“Hiiick, hick...”

“Damn it, shut up and breathe quietly, you idiot!”

“Aah!”

The husband, who had introduced the woman as his wife, roughly pushed her head aside as he dashed out of the living room, his eyes wide in panic, and ran up the stairs to the second floor.

Just as he reached the hallway, a man who had been carefully stepping out of his room was startled to see the bloodshot eyes of the husband.

“There!”

It was the company worker, the one who had been communicating in writing due to his sore throat.

He froze, startled, and quickly pulled out the notebook from his pocket to write something, but the husband shook what he was holding first.

“This... this gold frame...!”

He had ripped a gold-framed picture off the wall in the living room.

His eyes widened as he pointed furiously at the contents inside.

The rabbit is roasted in the kitchen

The deer is slaughtered in the backyard

The pigeon is fattened in the room

The sheep is carved in the living room

“People are dying just like this!”

“...!”

The people who were roasted in the kitchen, ground in the backyard, bloated in the room!

“The lodge keeper, or whoever is behind this, is messing with us! This—this could be broadcasted! No! Whatever the case, they’re definitely playing with us!”

The company worker stared at him in shock, his eyes wide.

Seeing this reaction, the husband’s conviction grew stronger, and he shouted.

“Next, it’s the living room! Someone’s going to get sliced to death in here! I’m sure of it! We have to find a way out before that happens...”

“...Oh.”

……

Huh?

Did he just... say something?

“You’re more perceptive than I thought. Braun.”

“Braun?”

That was the last thing the man said.

***

"Did you wake up?"

The man, regaining consciousness with a throbbing headache, lifted his head.

"Ugh! Ughhh!"

He couldn’t speak, as if his mouth was gagged.

Still, he screamed as loudly as he could.

"Ughhhh!!"

The reason for his scream wasn’t just because the place smelled like damp mold and the darkness was so intense that it was hard to make out anything in front of him.

No.

It was because there was another head next to his own!!

A head!

"Ughhh!"

The pale face of the dead man was placed on a tray, right next to him.

He was going insane.

Tears, snot, and cold sweat were pouring down his face, and he screamed, pleading for his life.

But the gag swallowed everything.

"Ugh, hu-hu...!"

"Are you scared? Just hold on. I'm holding on too."

A calm, composed voice answered.

The man rolled his eyes, trying desperately to move away from the severed head, and looked up.

And then he realized.

‘That company worker...!’

A young man in black athletic gear was glaring down at him.

The man looked at the bloodstained work gloves in his hand, almost contemptuously, before sighing and putting them back on.

Then, he grabbed an axe.

"Ughhh!!"

"Why is it that even though we know in our heads that a person doesn’t change, we still end up screaming first? It's tiring for both of us."

"Ugh!! Ughhh!!"

"Let’s not waste energy for no reason."

He was insane.

This guy, this guy was the murderer…!!

The man wanted to negotiate, beg, or even fight back, anything he could do, but his entire body was tightly bound, and his mouth was blocked, leaving him powerless.

Tears streamed down his face.

"Ah, the physical and mental pain... is somewhat alleviated? Well, maybe it is, or maybe not."

The company worker checked the time in a dry voice.

The axe blade slid over the rough surface of his gloves.

"Pretty reasonable, but I still don’t like it."

It was being used as originally intended.

The axe swung through the air in a sharp arc.

Thwack.

Cling…

"......"

"......"

In the quiet workshop, Kim Soleum lowered the axe.

Then, with a slightly brighter tone, he said,

"Almost done."

Three left.