By Zephyria 
“What the hell is this, fuck! Who are they kidding?!”
Park Jun-yeol spat out a curse and hurled his phone away. Others, far from understanding the situation and instead falling into a deeper panic, shouted out in their own right. Judging by what could be heard, it seemed everyone had received the same text message.
They desperately hoped it was all a dream, but there was no miracle awakening. This was reality. There was no hero who would suddenly appear to save them like in a movie or a drama; no matter how much they screamed that it was a lie, reality would not change. Yoo Jiha pressed his hand against his anxiously thumping chest and looked around. He had to find a way to survive on his own.
He saw something that hadn’t been visible before. It was as if his vision had opened up the moment he read the text message regarding the survival procedure manual.
“A mailbox suddenly appeared over there.”
At Yoo Jiha’s words, everyone’s gaze shifted. Perhaps the survival procedure manual for this specific Aberrant Realm was inside. He carefully opened the mailbox. There were eight sheets of paper and eight silicone medication vials. The number matched the number of people present.
After distributing them one by one to the frozen group, Yoo Jiha unfolded his own paper.
[Eight Phases Mental Hospital Survival Procedure Manual]
At the time of writing this manual, the survival rate of Eight Phases Mental Hospital is approximately 86%. This is a significantly meaningful and high survival rate, so do not panic and calmly follow the manual.
One of the safe locations in Eight Phases Mental Hospital is the fifth locker from the left in the 6th-floor nurses’ changing room. Enter the locker, close the door, do not react to any commotion or stimulation from the outside, and wait for rescue from headquarters.
There are stairs at both ends of the ward and an elevator in the center. The means by which you must move to the 6th floor is the stairs. Regardless of the floor, the elevator transports you to a place similar to the inside of a biological creature’s viscera; to date, there have been no survivors. If you wish to explore a new world, we will not discourage you. Should you survive, a small reward will be paid for your information.
It does not matter which side of the stairs you use, but if you move to the next floor consecutively, you will never reach the 6th floor. If you used the left stairs to move from the 1st to the 2nd floor, you must use the right stairs to move from the 2nd to the 3rd floor.
There is no basement in the hospital. Even if you see a door or stairs leading to a basement, it is all a lie.
Most Aberrations in the form of patients have little interest in the outside world, so you may pass by quietly without drawing their attention. However, if noise occurs or if you remain in their line of sight for more than 30 seconds, they will immediately become hostile toward you.
If you encounter a nurse entity among the Aberrations, greet them politely and explain your situation, stating that you have only come to visit a patient. If you offend them, they will place you on the list of new patients.
6-1. If you possess medical knowledge, you may disguise yourself as a medical professional. After engaging in sufficient conversation, if you ask for the way out, claiming you are a novice and not yet familiar with the layout, they will kindly inform you of the back door toward the parking lot. As it is one of the safe locations, wait there quietly for rescue from headquarters.
However, the medical information of the nurse entities is stuck 22 years in the past. If you mention terminology or knowledge established since then, they will be infuriated for the reason that you deceived them. Since nurses on rounds usually travel individually, you may be able to escape if you are lucky.
Doctor entities among the Aberrations are more difficult to please, but they move along a fixed route only during rounds. Doctor entities do not move alone but are accompanied by several nurse entities, so you will be able to hear their footsteps from a distance. Since they use the elevator, hide in the stairs to avoid getting caught in the rounding route. Hiding in an empty, lit patient room is not recommended.
If you encounter a doctor entity, do your best with the mindset of a graduate student facing their supervising professor, a subcontractor employee meeting the CEO of the primary contractor, or a grandson greeting grandparents with a massive inheritance. In modern slang, it’s called “brown-nosing.” They particularly enjoy flattery regarding the abundance of their hair follicles.
The patient entity in Room 101 has a savior complex. Kneel and bow your head, worshipping them with all your heart like a follower of a pseudo-religion. Intoxicated by the worship directed toward them, they will let you go.
The patient entity in Room 202 has “Dad Joke Syndrome.” Even if not a single muscle in your face twitches upon hearing their joke, burst into loud, excited laughter as if your belly button is falling out, allowing them to become intoxicated by a sense of power. If your reaction is insufficient and they do not feel the power of a subordinate laughing hysterically at their joke, they will force you to laugh.
The patient entity in Room 303 is an alcoholic. No matter how much they act like a stubborn old geezer while drunkenly rambling, be subservient and obedient. They will soon pass by, complaining that young people these days are hopeless. However, if you entered the Aberrant Realm while intoxicated, they will attempt to suck the alcohol out of your blood.
Room 404 is vacant.
The patient entity in Room 505 is a delusional patient. Depending on your gender, they will call you Unni or Oppa and ask you to play house. You must do your best to participate in the house-play of a burly, middle-aged man with a thick beard and chest hair who is delusional that he is a 6-year-old girl. If satisfied, they will let you go safely, saying let’s play again next time; otherwise, they will try to turn you into a teddy bear.
The patient entity in Room 606 has separation anxiety. If a grain of rice falls from their body, they become deeply distressed, sobbing and crawling across the ceiling. Find all the grains of rice they dropped and carefully stick them back on using saliva. They will be very grateful and give you one grain of rice as a gift. It is not particularly useful, but it can be offered as a bribe when encountering a doctor entity. If submitted to headquarters, a small reward will be paid.
The above Aberrations are those bound to Eight Phases Mental Hospital. However, on rare occasions, External Abnormal Demons not bound to the hospital may enter. We trust in your wit and luck.
‘Is… is this more manageable than I thought? Since I drank, as long as I don’t meet the alcoholic…’
There were no monsters that killed people out of the blue, and it felt like they would generally let you go as long as you played along with their whims. The others seemed to feel similarly, their faces showing a slight sense of relief.
The hot-tempered man who had been badgering the bus driver cleared his throat.
“I don’t know what’s what, but it seems we have to enter this Eight Phases Mental Hospital to escape. Anyone have other ideas?”
No one raised their hand. Park Jun-yeol’s face twisted, but he didn’t object.
A suggestion was made to bring something that could be used as a weapon, but it fell through. The group was unable to interfere with objects within the Aberrant Realm. They couldn’t even break a twig or smash the window of a car parked in the lot. In the end, the eight people entered the hospital empty-handed, clutching only tension and fear.
Just before entering the building, Yoo Jiha, who had been reading the manual intently, cautiously called out to the group.
“Um, excuse me… I think our numbers might be a problem.”
“What do you mean, student?”
“If you look at rule number 5 of the manual, it says not to draw the monsters’ attention. It wouldn’t be common for eight people to be wandering around a hospital. Even I would probably look once if I saw eight people of different genders and ages huddled at the hospital entrance…”
“Hey, eight of us came in here in the first place, so what do you want us to do?”
Park Jun-yeol scoffed, but the other members of the group nodded thoughtfully.
“That makes sense.”
“Then… shall we split in half? Since it says our concept should be visitors, four people seem appropriate.”
“It might be dangerous if we split too much, so that should be fine.”
“And there happen to be stairs on both sides.”
Yoo Jiha, who teamed up with Park Jun-yeol, the bus driver, and the woman who identified herself as a nurse, agreed to ascend the left stairs first.
The moment they took a step inside the building, the people were able to grasp exactly what an Aberration was. They were not human. Even though the things lingering in the building possessed limbs and facial features close to humans, they were not human.
Something clumsy about them triggered the uncanny valley effect, but it wasn’t a fundamental sense of alienness. It was a survival instinct, long forgotten since humans overcame physical fragility with intelligence and positioned themselves at the top of the food chain, that screamed: those are not human. That sixth sense, which allowed humans to detect the approach of predators and flee to survive back when they roamed the wild before building civilization.
When the stiffened group stopped as if by agreement, the creatures also noticed the presence of strangers visiting the hospital.
The Aberrations stared at the group simultaneously, but in less than a second, they all averted their gaze. It seemed that splitting into four was the right answer. The group breathed a sigh of relief, exchanged nods, and walked toward the end of the corridor.