Ultra cubs, start killing

The director began to scan the documents with his eyes, silently complaining about how busy the work was.

"One last question. Do you know Mr. Wakura Eisuke who resigned before Director Matsunaga Yoichiro?"

Hearing Himeya Jun's question, the director kept holding the documents and turned his head exaggeratedly.

"Wakura Eisuke? Oh, the person who switched to work for a security company?"

The director raised his voice, as if to overcome the noise of the factory production line. It was only a month since he disappeared, and Matsunaga Yoichiro's desk was already occupied by overflowing documents next to him.

A month and a half before Himeya Jun visited Matsunaga Hazuki, Matsunaga Yoichiro was writing a business log in the factory office where he was seconded.

February 15th, 8:30 to work.

He had no work to do today. From tomorrow, the meaning of the empty record will change this matter, and he has no way of knowing. If he knew it at the time, he might not disappear in the next month.

Matsunaga Yoichiro closed the notebook with too much blank space and greeted the factory director. His voice was mixed with the sound of the production line. He called three times and finally caught the attention of the young site manager.

"No need to bother you, please leave it to the people on site."

The director waved and called the female clerk. Although Matsunaga Yoichiro did not ask for tea, the tea was immediately placed on his desk. As soon as he took a sip, he immediately tasted the tastelessness.

The vibration of the factory always shook the walls of the office vaguely. Matsunaga Yoichiro was transferred here for a month, and as a result, he could hear slight sounds even in places where there was no sound. Just like that, the value was lost, and the emptiness of something slipping through his fingers made the former sales director sigh.

Matsunaga Yoichiro, who once walked on the road of elites and should have been the best among his peers, now only has two lines left in his business log to write "work" and "off work". Even so, he did not resign from the company, not just because work is the value of survival. It was also because he couldn't change his lifestyle from working to hobbies or his own things. For him, the only thing he could rely on to survive, the only thing he could understand how to do things, and the only thing he could trust was work.

- Same as before, got off work at 17:30.

I didn't do anything today, and only recorded these in my diary. The factory was running, and other employees were always busy working. However, even if Matsunaga Yoichiro was there, he would only get in the way. He greeted him, and the director, who was talking fluently on the phone and speaking very fast, glanced at him for a second.

The sun in February set very early. On the horizon against the cold wind, the red light of dusk was slowly lighting the bottom of the night. The aroma of curry wafted from the window of the residential street, and he suddenly wanted to eat something warm.

Twenty years ago, when his wife was still alive, if he made curry on Mother's Day, his daughter Matsunaga Hazuki would be very happy. Shiro bought something at the supermarket after a long time and decided to prepare dinner. He peeled potatoes, fried meat, and cut onions and carrots, thinking about the cooking he did when he was a student. Then, as the kitchen was filled with the nostalgic aroma of curry, the phone rang. It was Hazuki Matsunaga calling from the company.

"I'm going to attend a farewell party for those who are retiring at the end of this month, so I'll be home late today."

He realized that his cheerful daughter in the past was now a serious adult.

"Don't come back too late. It's cold, and dad made curry."

"I'll eat it tomorrow morning. Sorry, I have to hang up."

The phone was hung up, and Matsunaga Yoichiro was the only one left in the house that had just paid off the loan. He felt dead lonely, so he sat down in front of the shrine. In front of his wife's portrait, there was a salary list.

Because Hazuki Matsunaga had always put his hands together on salary days since he first received his salary when he took office. As if checking his child's address book, he opened the thin list with disdain and checked it. Unconsciously, Matsunaga Yoichiro's salary has been surpassed by his daughter.

-- February 16

The next morning, Matsunaga Yoichiro came to the company, but he didn't write down "8:30 to work" until the end, and closed the business diary. The sudden sense of futility that came to his mind made him stunned, and he began to be unable to bear to look at the pale white space like a desert.

He is a dispensable person. His daughter is also working and can be financially self-sufficient. Even if he quits his job, neither the company nor the family will be embarrassed. Although no one regards Matsunaga Yoichiro as a necessary person, he is not in the mood to find someone who will regard him as necessary in the future.

The sky outside the window is clear.

Matsunaga Yoichiro couldn't help but sigh deeply. This evening, he made an appointment with Wakura Eisuke who joined the company at the same time. It was quite depressing to think of talking to a man who was equally exhausted face to face about the glory of the past that would never come back.

However, after meeting Wakura Eisuke, he opened his business diary and suppressed his excitement when he returned home. He filled in the record with a ballpoint pen.

On February 16, I ran into Wakura Eisuke who had resigned. I heard the legend from him.

Himeya Jun was so busy with trivial matters that were about to reach the deadline that he left a week to go to the security company where Wakura Eisuke worked to collect materials.

In the clean smart building, the sound of employees answering the phone and the sound of the copy machine are full of energy. In a corner of the area separated by partitions as the reception room, Himeya was sitting on the sofa and took a sip of tea. If you think about it carefully, the factory where Matsunaga Kaichiro works is also a noisy and busy place.

Just as he was looking at the environment of the office, there was a curse coming from the copier.

"What are you doing! I told you to make copies before noon!"

Ji Yaquan subconsciously turned his eyes there, where the female staff member with a somewhat tacky shoulder-length hair lowered her head without saying a word, as if she was forbearing. The man next to her looked really strong. He put his hands in his pockets casually and told her what work was in a preachy tone.

No staff came to help her after she was scolded. In companies that actively hire in this recessionary environment, if there is an increase in work and the need for manpower is increased, there will also be times when there are too many people resigning and they cannot sustain it without frequent replacements.

"Excuse me for waiting. Do you want to ask about Mr. Wakura Eisuke?"

Suddenly, the face of the HR manager appeared on the other side of the partition. This made Ji Yazhun, who was watching the trouble carefully, feel a little embarrassed, and he adjusted his posture in a panic.

"Ah, yes. Do you know that Mr. Eisuke Wakura is missing?"

"No, how could it be like this? Although he worked for half a year, he resigned in a hurry. He thought, 'It is impossible for a person who has done great things to deign to be a security guard.'"

Whenever the HR manager complained about his dissatisfaction, there would be a faint stench coming from him. I wonder if he had a stomach problem.

"I see. Then has he ever mentioned anything like where to go from now on?"

"It's a bit strange. On the last day of work, he said something on the phone: 'Go to paradise'..."

Ji Yazhun couldn't help but take a breath.

He gradually developed a nasty feeling, as if something heavy was wrapped around the outer wall of his stomach. The records in the mysterious diary are truly connected to reality.

“Isn’t Paradise too poetic for the disappearance of tired middle-aged and elderly people?”

Ji Yaquan responded with a clumsy joke, and the HR manager stared at him for a long time without any smile.

"What are you doing! Shanjing, leave quickly!"

The stagnant silence was broken, and Ji Yajun turned around to take a look. The man who was arrogant in front of the female staff shrank into a ball next to the angry scolding of another manager who looked great. Immediately, Yamai stepped up his steps, followed closely behind his boss who left the floor, and scrawled his destination on the whiteboard.

go--

The words written on the board shocked Ji Yaquan. He rubbed his eyes and reconfirmed.

The place we are going to is not a paradise, it looks like a client company.

What drives Himeya is not just the sense of justice that wants to help Matsunaga Hazuki. There’s also the adult’s bad taste and desire to be judged behind my back, which is also half nosy. Ever since he was a child, Ji Yajun has always been a person who took apart toys when he got them and ran into a dark place with a flashlight.

If it's an urban paradise or something like that, forget it if it's an urban legend. If it really exists, it's hard to believe. So, he wanted to verify the authenticity. Thanks to this persistence and intuition, he had the freedom to choose what to do in the editorial department.

——February 21, listening to Wakura Eisuke’s detailed introduction to the park. He seemed to truly believe it.

On the bustling street at night, Hime Yajun held Matsunaga Kaichiro's photo in his hand and began to ask. Because about two months ago, in February, which was still winter, Matsunaga Kaichiro must have been looking for paradise in the same way.

——February 24. It is said that only the "delivery person" knows the way there. The clue to finding the delivery person lies in the arrangement of the stones.

The blank space of the diary containing the above contents is lined with colorful circular marks drawn randomly. This is what Ji Ya is pursuing so hard. Starting from the station closest to the factory where Matsunaga Kaichiro works, we insist on investigating one station every day. Today is the sixth day.

Ji Yaquan reconfirmed that Matsunaga asked Ichiro to leave the factory at a fixed time until he disappeared. In short, it means that as the "deliverer" of clues to the park, he only appears at night. Therefore, Ji Yajun also went to the streets crowded with people returning home from get off work, and asked passers-by to carefully scan the photos to confirm whether there were colorful stones piled up in front of the shops.

Hime could not believe the existence of a paradise that exhausted humans had escaped to. Because he has lost count of the number of scams or religious materials that target vulnerable groups.

If you say it is a store that sings about the paradise of this world, then there are countless pink signboards shining on the back of the bustling street. But is there really a place to bury the emptiness Matsunaga Kaichiro feels? If there is such a place, then Ji Ya's common sense, which belongs to the editorial department of the magazine and thinks he is knowledgeable, will be completely overturned.

"I know, I've seen it before. This person seems to have been here two months ago. He looked like he was thinking about something. He glanced at the ground with his eyes while walking, and he even bumped into us. The little girl. And let me tell you, the skin on the little girl’s hands is scratched. How do you do this?”

The man holding a thousand-yuan coupon from the custom shop frowned unabashedly. For some reason, Hime could not stop. He continued to chase the tired figure of Matsunaga Kaichiro. He forced a smile and thanked the man.

――February 28th, found the convenience store where the delivery person made the transaction. On the same day, I went to the convenience store with Kura Eisuke.

Two days later, at about 8 o'clock in the evening, he finally found a convenience store.

In a residential area about 20 minutes' walk from the west exit of Shinjuku Station, there is a big brand chain convenience store. At the back door, there are two overlapping round colored stones, just like in the painting. At that time, Matsunaga Yoichiro and his team actually found this place by their own strength.

Himeya Jun, hiding in the shadows a little further away, watched the situation intently. He planned to track down the clues of Matsunaga Yoichiro's diary. He was thinking about this, and his mood was difficult to calm down. He took out his mobile phone and sent the address of this convenience store to the editorial office in the form of an email, as if he was on guard against disappearing from the face of the earth.

He wiped off the extra sweat on his hands on his jeans, as if he was forced into a desperate situation, changed the ringtone of his mobile phone to vibrate, took out the digital camera from his coat pocket, and checked the remaining battery.

After 8:30 at night, a person dressed in black suddenly appeared in the direction of the station. A long black coat and black pants. Sunglasses under a black hat. A black sports bag on his shoulder. The figure, buried in black and losing his individuality, gradually approached the back door of the convenience store.

-- March 5th, go to paradise.

The figure squatted down next to the small stone mark with a creaking sound. This must be the "delivery person" in the log. The moment he realized this, Himeya Jun seemed to be lost in Tokyo that he didn't know, where the impossible paradise existed, and he fell into a dizzy feeling like the world was spinning.

"What are you thinking about?"

Himeya Jun was just confused about this matter at first, but gradually, he really began to feel dizzy. In this trance, a faint voice came to his ears, and the voice was full of temptation. Just the simple "what do you want", this question, made Himeya Jun have infinite associations, as if as long as he responded to this idea, everything he wanted would be realized in an instant.

But Jiya Jun also felt an unprecedented fear. He realized that everything was priced in the dark, and when he responded to this mysterious voice, he would inevitably lose something.

At this moment, Jiya Jun felt something. In this dizzy darkness, he felt a strange warmth. He looked up and saw a beam of light shining. He subconsciously reached out to the light.

At the same time, all the darkness and dizziness dissipated. Jiya Jun vaguely realized at the last moment that he seemed to have taken something like a scabbard.

When Jiya Jun regained consciousness, a figure holding a pure white light made a surprised sound. Yuan Subaru looked at the light energy that he had not yet handed over, blinked his eyes, continued to hide his figure, and began to look for the original creation hidden behind the scenes.

On the other side, Himeya Jun woke up from the dizziness. He shook his head. He felt like he had forgotten something, but he also felt like he had experienced something. In the end, his attention was still on finding Matsunaga Yoichiro. According to the clues at hand, he quickly came to a convenience store, squatted aside, and waited patiently.

Not long after, he saw a male clerk coming out of the convenience store. The reason why this clerk attracted Himeya Jun's attention was that he picked up four large plastic bags that looked quite heavy with both hands, approached the man dressed in black, and began to negotiate in whispers. They seemed to have reached a consensus quickly. The delivery person took the bag and carefully confirmed what was inside.

From Himeya Jun's side, he could also peek into the balanced nutrition meals, bread, and bento there. The clerk picked up a small cardboard box that had been placed next to the trash can at some point. The box contained five plastic blocks the size of videotapes. Because the transaction was too smooth, even the customers standing nearby did not feel anything wrong.

The delivery person stuffed the food into the sports bag and left the convenience store. Himeya Jun began to follow his back carefully.

The black figure walked towards the center of Shinjuku. Although the delivery man blended perfectly into the crowd, his back was much shorter than that of an ordinary man. Himeya Jun, who was following behind, bumped into drunken men and women several times. When he apologized, the ghost of the city disappeared at the entrance of the subway. Himeya Jun also ran down the huge Shinjuku underground street.

It was nine o'clock in the evening. At this time, all the stores selling high-priced goods were closed. Even so, the drugstores and restaurants in the basement were still full of vitality, and they were sprinting to make the last deal before the end of the day.

Himeya Jun finally caught up with him and saw the delivery man turn into a drugstore. He peeked in front of the bakery with the shutters lowered. The elegant woman in white came out. She must be the owner's wife.

At the end of the brief negotiation, an envelope much thicker than Himeya Jun's salary and something like a coin locker key were exchanged. The strange feeling of not knowing the true identity and the transactions on the street seem very suspicious because many people have disappeared.

A group of people in suits are walking hurriedly on the way home, and the deliveryman is mixed in again. Himeya Jun looked at the front of the store without saying a word. Under the shelves of the drugstore, there are colorful stones that seem to have no sense of existence.

"Ah."

丅 He shouted anxiously. Because the delivery person ran to the subway ticket gate without warning. If this continues, the clue to the park will slip away from the ticket gate using the subway prepaid card. As soon as Ji Yajun returned to the people waiting in line in front of the ticket vending machine, the black figure disappeared.

After Ji Ya passed the ticket gate with her ticket, she also ran towards the stairs. The sound of thousands of footsteps pouring out of the subway car came like a shower, and countless tired faces climbed up the stairs. The middle-aged woman who met Ji Yaquan's eyes had a lifeless earth color on her face.

Other men seemed born to wander around Shinjuku at night, their greasy foreheads filled with expectations. He had the illusion that he saw Matsunaga Kaichiro in the crowd of office workers who seemed to be pouring out of the ground. If Matsunaga wanted Ichiro to join in the wave of human flesh pushing and shoving Hime, he wouldn't find it unbelievable. Besides, Ji Yajun already felt that it would not be strange for any of them to choose to go to the paradise like Matsunaga Kaichiro did.

When he came down the stairs, the platform was empty. The obscene and chaotic crowding disappeared completely, leaving only the slightly dirty walls and floors of the building with the breath of humanity remaining. The clicking, clicking, echoing footsteps may belong to the delivery person.

In the hollow of the subway tunnel, there was a sharp and regular sound like falling raindrops. The road, about fifty centimeters wide, extends from the waiting point into the depths of darkness. Is it for subway staff to work on, or are there rules in this city that Ji Yajun doesn't know about? However, he only knew one thing, if he kept going, he would find something.

Ji Yajun reluctantly swallowed the bitter saliva with his dry throat and took steps. As the narrow road expands forward, the bright platform that belongs to the daily scenery gradually disappears into the distance. He saw a rusty metal door that remained ajar on the wall of the tunnel ahead.

There are various legends about the Tokyo underground. It is said that there used to be an underground base in the Self-Defense Forces' Ichinogaya garrison, which also had the function of a nuclear war shelter. There is a secret passage underneath Tokyo Station leading to the Imperial Palace. What Ji Yazhun is facing now is probably the indispensable door to the underground city center that is indispensable in the dark legends that if you work in his profession, you must have heard of it.

"Creak, creak," the long ladder behind the door made a harsh sound. Just when his palms were hurting from the friction, he finally reached the finish line. It was a huge cylindrical hollow that could allow several people to pass side by side, like a comprehensive pipe gallery.

Several pillars that seemed to divide the space vertically were erected there, and thick metal pipes ran through it. Thick cables that were neither wires nor communications passed over the guide rails.

Ji Yaquan seemed to be opening up the guts of the city and entering it, shining light around him restlessly. He thought of what he had seen in photos before, the inside of the large intestine seen with an endoscope.

The red liquid, like dissolved red rust, gathered together to form a slimy pool, and he stepped into it. While walking, for some reason, a comic magazine dated more than 20 years ago from the Showa era fell to the ground.

In short, this is the blood and feces accumulated in the city's internal organs. But not only is there no wind here, but the air is a little warm. Even though the front was illuminated, there was no door in the fork in the road, so Ji Ya turned off the switch in order to save the battery of the flashlight.

The only thing he could rely on was the light of emergency lights that appeared from time to time in the darkness. To be cautious, he touched the wall with his hand, fearing that he would not hear the footsteps of the delivery person, and listened carefully with his ears raised.

Ji Yaquan realized the horror of "Is it possible to go back if this continues?", and a cold feeling came over his stomach. At the same time, he did not stop and continued to walk deeper.

If there are shadows wherever there is light, then where should the shadows fall in a big city that is brightly lit even at midnight?

He felt that the shadows of thousands of buildings where sleep was taboo, the shadows that would be dispersed by electric lights even if they were underground where the sun couldn't penetrate, were nestling deeper underground.

The dark and monotonous road seemed to stretch endlessly. Ji Yajun took out his cell phone from his pocket and checked the time. The date has changed. This premature loss of time surprised him.

Even such a trivial thing was enough to make him deeply uneasy, and he couldn't hold on even after he had walked a few steps.

Logically speaking, there should be no one around, but footsteps followed and whispers began to sound from behind.

Ji Yazhun comforted himself over and over again and said:

"It's just that the sound I made was reflected back."

But moving forward on this road, Ji Yaquan soon felt that he was about to lose his direction completely. Just when he began to question where he was going, his ears suddenly caught the sound of loud footsteps.

At this moment, the feeling of his left hand holding on to the wall disappeared, and he fell. It turned out that there was a narrow branch road extending from there that could only allow one person to pass. Ji Yaquan held his breath and tiptoed away from the utility corridor, chasing the footsteps.

Although the person in front of him was clearly an unidentified person, and there might be danger hidden there, but just the sound of the sound made him feel a strange sense of intimacy. He almost suspected that what he felt before was not terror, but loneliness. His tense nerves were healed by the sound of footsteps.

The dark maze that even the emergency lights couldn't illuminate had several bends. When he reached the intersection, Himeya Jun, who was unsure of which direction to go, began to regard the echo as a life-saving straw. Himeya Jun groped the wall with both hands, panting heavily, wiped off the sweat that broke out, and almost crawled on all fours to track the only clue. He reached out from his neck and pulled away the sticky collar covered with sweat and dust.

If he was thrown off by the footsteps, "Will I be lying alone in the ground without a single mark?" The thought kept falling in the negative direction. After going through the anxious stage, he felt nauseous and wanted to vomit.

In front of him, a light appeared. This was the first time that a light other than the emergency lights appeared in the corridor. He breathed a sigh of relief for being rescued from the darkness, and at the same time, the question "Why would a place like this need lights?" came to his mind.

The footsteps of the deliveryman continued, which was almost annoying. Now, Himeya Jun was completely standing on the other side of the boundary separating daily life.

"!!!!"

The sound of human conversation came from the road ahead. Although he had been wandering in places with poor visibility, his mind gradually cleared up. He took out a digital camera from his pocket and checked. When he remembered that he was a reporter, his stomach, which had been churning before, miraculously recovered.

He dragged his feet forward, his leg muscles swollen. He became more and more convinced that this was the place he was looking for. After finally passing through the maze, the terminal of this underground short trip was a hall with a very high ceiling, huge enough to make people stunned.