Tower

It did not matter whether the nurses found the body or Professor Jung turned himself in; once security guards arrived on the scene and launched an investigation, and word reached the key members of power, Beanstalk’s entire power field would immediately collapse and the Level 22 border would be sealed. How long before the border closed was anyone’s

“For crying out loud, Dr. Hwang. We’ll look ridiculous now that you’ve got this. Seriously, myrrh? It’ll make our gifts look silly too. A gold ring, perfume, and myrrh on Christmas Eve? Heck, we’re like the Three Wise Men here.”

The basement floors had never been Beanstalk territory, and Levels 1 to 12 comprised a single large garden. Above the garden was the Middle Zone, or Demilitarized Zone, where foreigners were free to enter—commercial facilities such as department stores, malls, and movie theaters all the way up to Level 21. Then, Levels 22 to 25 were dedicated to th

To trace the inhabitant’s identity, Dr. Lee consulted the resident directory that Professor Jung had obtained a while back by bribing a senior employee of the Security Guardhouse. All he found listed in the directory was “Film Actor P.” Deciding that sorting things out in person would be faster, Dr. Lee hopped into an elevator and headed up to Leve

But was it really such a black and white situation? I was fascinated by A Study on Level 520, yet someone like me was labeled a verticalist without question. And she was fascinated by my horror stories about elevator maneuver exercises. To me, the line between the two camps was blurry. It was a dotted line, and treading both sides of it didn’t seem

Professor Jung did not come after them. He stood rooted to the spot waiting for the police, or “security guards” in Beanstalk lingo. Yet the three recruits ran and ran. They kept pacing even inside elevators.

In Minso’s eyes, Beanstalk was another Tower of Babel—a city of hubris. He hated that Eunsoo had found a job there. It was only an internship, but Eunsoo seemed to think moving into Beanstalk would make all her dreams come true. It would not. Beanstalk was not welcoming to unestablished migrant workers like Eunsoo. Despite sitting on foreign territ

“I’m not going far away. I’ll be here. Just twenty minutes away.” “You won’t be able to leave often.” “I got in. I might as well work hard.” “You won’t even get to call.” “Like I said, it’s for security reasons.” “What security bans interns from calls and emails?” “Look, Minso, that’s the way things are here. Everyone accepts that. They can teach t

Dr. Lee had found a unit where the liquor wasn’t moving with the natural flow of the power structure. The inhabitant of unit A57 on Level 487 appeared to have blocked the flow. Given that five bottles had flowed into the unit in the past ten days, whoever lived there was evidently an important person. But as all five bottles went in and never came