The Field Exploration team employees of Daydream Inc. are people who work at the risk of their lives because they have a wish they desperately want to come true.
What does that mean? It means the majority of the employees are ready to exploit their colleagues, civilians, or even insane ghost stories to achieve their own goals!
They only care about the welfare points they need for their own wish.
Three people who were the prime examples of that were right before my eyes.
Of course, it seemed like their personalities weren't necessarily how they are… just because of their wishes.
"Assistant manager, those who fell behind when we met the Mer-child earlier…."
"I don't care."
"Pony, it's truly a pity about those who were taken, of course… but that's their fate. Shall we move forward quickly? We have to find items…."
"Right, right. But since they might have dropped some equipment while being dragged away, I’ll just take a quick look… Hahaha!"
"……."
They are truly consistent human beings….
'Even if I told those people that the Mer-child are actually young children….'
They wouldn't give a damn. On the contrary, they are the kind of people who would deliberate on whether there’s anything more they can extract based on that fact. Having an acquaintance is useless.
No, in the first place, in a situation where I couldn't even step forward in my original form, being an acquaintance was useless from the start.
Hidden in the black shadow cast by a collapsed streetlight in the form of a street animal, I observed the Daydream Inc. employees scouring the alleys.
But then….
"Quiet."
Jin Nasol stopped in her tracks and crouched down.
"It's a mermaid."
"……."
"A spawn."
All three employees held their breath and pressed themselves against the alley wall.
Giggle, giggle….
A sound could be heard.
Something like a child's laughter.
'Ha.'
My whole body felt like it was freezing solid, but… I had to check.
Very carefully, I softly contracted my four legs and leapt, landing soundlessly on top of a wall.
The moment my view over the alley opened up slightly, the appearance of the 'Mer-child' finally entered my sight….
Giggle, giggle….
It was strange.
It was bizarre. Small bodies mimicking humans were walking along the broken main road of the infected city.
Among them, some were sophisticated or smirked as if mimicking human expressions, but some already had faces swollen with ulcers, pulsating of their own accord.
And the horrific membrane beneath it!
Every time the membrane pulsated together, air leaked out, making a sound similar to a child's laughter.
Pink ulcerous masses, green lumps of flesh, and contaminated lumps hung long down their legs, dragging behind them like tails.
Belongings and clothing of the dead.
The things they wore haphazardly looked as if they were desperately trying to deceive people….
In truth, even to my eyes, knowing that they were all innocent children.
"……."
My spine and whiskers stood on end enough to break out in a cold sweat.
Instinct tells me.
I must run away.
Upon encountering an Infected Larva.
Flee and maintain distance while remaining as inconspicuous as possible. No manual exists for failure. Attempting a rescue for failed employees is not recommended.
The Infected Larvae ran down the main road in a grotesque procession. In the alley, the Daydream employees and I all held our breaths.
Then, someone popped out from another alley.
A person encountered an Infected Larva.
"……!"
However, that person was already covered in Infection Mucus, their joints covered in ulcerous masses, being controlled.
A hopeless sight.
The infected person was already out of their mind, but they could still scream.
Because they had a mouth.
"Agh!! Aaagh! Agh!"
The Infected Larvae burst into laughter and pounced.
The tentacle masses attached like tails surged forward hideously.
The ulcer attached to the infected person's stomach split wide open, causing blood, mucus, and unspeakable things to burst out.
"Agh, haaaaagh, huuuh……."
'Honey' was being collected, and collected….
I huddled my paws together and endured that time.
Before long, the screams vanished.
"……."
Passing by the deceased person, the Infected Larvae, their tail-like ulcers filled with blood and membranes, resumed their procession.
Toward the Mermaid Statue.
Toward the tumor of infection, the Biohazard Colony.
Giggle, giggle….
"……."
Only after the sound had completely disappeared did the three employees in the alley begin to move again.
"…So if you get caught by that tail, it's game over, right?"
"Yeah."
That was the reason to run away.
The tail of an Infected Larva secretes mucus that causes fatal paralysis, and even a single sting results in the immediate and permanent loss of muscle movement.
And if one is infected in that state, that person must be considered already dead.
Hearing up to this point, one might wonder how on earth this ghost story received a C-rank classification.
'It's because there's a very clear countermeasure.'
And like two sides of a coin, the countermeasure actually lies within those infected entities.
Thump, thu-thump….
A strange sound was heard from the main road again.
But this time, it wasn't the Infected Larvae.
They were forms like grown humans.
However, as their size increased, their sophistication seemed to have crumbled. There were no longer any expressions on those swaying things.
The ulcerous mass strings that looked like tails had turned into something like blood vessels, connecting to each other… and stretching long up the main road.
They were connected to the colony.
Things that had almost shed their human form, appearing like bait used by the colony to lure people.
…What the Infected Larvae were presumed to eventually mutate into.
General Infected are identified as being completely absorbed into the colony, moving like nerve endings.
They appear as a kind of accessory part rather than an individual entity.
A bit of motivation returned to the eyes of Butterfly Mask, the assistant manager.
"There they are."
Therefore, in the case where the encountered danger is a General Infected rather than an Infected Larva.
"Get them."
Kill them and collect evidence.
The three employees went out, lured the infected, and killed them.
In the case of General Infected, surprisingly, they easily wither and die when the connecting string to the colony is severed.
"……."
Upon presenting the evidence, one can board the Escape Pod remaining in the city and clear the darkness in question.
So… the children.
After being infected and exploited, once that ulcer-like creature completely spreads throughout their entire body, they lose their Lee Ji and turn into monstrous creatures.
The reason why children disappeared every time agents visited.
It was because when they died after being completely infected, they became one with and part of that bizarre Biohazard Colony, connected as one….
'…Fuck.'
I clenched my front paws, suppressed the urge to vomit.
Curses threatened to surge up.
In reality, there was no way to save them once they reached that state, and even though it was something I had read several times in the Exploration Records, the physiological revulsion made my fur stand on end.
"Evidence collection complete!"
"Shut up for a bit."
"Ah, yes, yes."
Soon, the three employees succeeded in hunting the 'mermaid' and collecting the sensory organ-like thing inside the tail as evidence.
That sight overlapped strangely with the sight of the Mer-child collecting blood and membranes from the infected people.
They could now escape from this place.
But instead of immediately running toward the Escape Pod, they continued to scour the alleys and advance.
'…Because they have a second objective.'
Anyone familiar with the behavioral patterns of Daydream Inc. employees would realize it immediately.
'Items.'
The reason why this darkness was not assigned to a general team despite being rated as C-rank.
The reason why it was still under the research team under the judgment that 'given its scale and clues, greater secrets might be hidden.'
The reason why there is never a shortage of volunteers when explorations are conducted….
'There's a reason.'
It was because of the items, which were 'clues' themselves found here.
In this ruined city, there were traces of an incredibly mysterious and wondrous civilization that could be found.
The so-called….
'Angel's Sigh'.
"Ah, geez, there's no sigh or whatever."
"Be quiet."
A Daydream Inc. employee wearing a suit and a strange mask grumbled in a corner of an alley.
Entering this place, where a mysterious civilization had once existed but now only ruins, monstrous creatures, contamination, and terrifying attacks remained, wasn't just because of points.
In fact, this exploration consisted of volunteers who were more interested in the side benefits than the main task.
Angel's Sigh.
An item in the shape of a Conch Shell, it was something occasionally found inside and outside the residential areas of this city.
Its true value came out when this item was held to the ear.
Hearing the beautiful humming coming from inside the conch stabilized the mind, healed wounds, and boosted energy.
A healing item.
Naturally, it was an object helpful for darkness investigation, and since it was one of the few items Daydream Inc. purchased, many employees searched for it with fire in their eyes.
Even so, since this was a place that had been explored dozens of times already, it was no longer easily found.
They had to go deeper into the increasingly dangerous center or find secret spaces that others hadn't discovered.
And cases of getting caught by the infected in the process were common.
Just like those employees right now.
"Aaagh!"
'Dumbass.'
Listening to the scream coming from the alley they had passed earlier, Baek Saheon was briefly satisfied with the companions he had chosen.
'It was a good idea to push my way in.'
The people here were out of their minds, but they wouldn't do something so short-sighted and stupid while being possessed by an item.
He twitched the corners of his mouth unnoticeably while touching the Escape Pod entry ticket collected from the tail.
'Preparation to clear is also finished.'
Now, while searching for items, if push comes to shove, I can just feed the people next to me to the mermaids and run away… Wait.
Just now.
Did something pass by?
'…Huh?'
Baek Saheon blinked.
He thought he definitely saw something pop out from the shadow of a streetlight down the alley and go around the corner in his peripheral vision.
He hastily checked his companions, but they showed no reaction.
'I saw it wrong?'
Baek Saheon, who had desperately relied only on his own senses and judgment throughout his life, could not accept that conclusion.
Yet, he didn't want to tell the Team A Assistant Manager either.
…He was a type of person who wasn't easy to lure into acting instead.
-Hey. If you want to talk about some new monster in a darkness where nothing but mermaids has appeared for 7 years, describe it properly.
-If you interfere one more time, I'm leaving you behind.
'He's the kind of guy who would actually do it.'
Ah, fuck. I don't even have time to search for items.
Though it was a waste, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind to keep watch on the alley corner.
That was when.
Swish.
A shadow flickered across the streetlight in the alley.
It was definitely that black something he had seen earlier. That silhouette….
Triangular ears, a streamlined body, four legs.
……Phew, what.
It was something familiar.
'It was just a cat.'
Baek Saheon let out a sigh of relief in annoyance. That was just one of the bothersome street animals commonly seen in India.
That's what he thought….
'……Huh?'
In an instant.
Cold chills ran down Baek Saheon's back.
In a darkness where no life other than the Biohazard-Merfolk had ever been discovered.
There was no way a stray cat could be here.
"…!"
Calculations ran rapidly through Baek Saheon's cooled head.
And quietly, just enough so that the other employees wouldn't notice, he slightly lifted his eyepatch…. To check the danger with the purple equipment of the Sclera Inversion hidden beneath it.
And.
He saw the danger.
"…!"
A horrific red halo surged beyond the corner of the alley.
It was visible even in the cast shadow. A colony of all sorts of lowly, harmful life forms that could be witnessed on the streets—rats, cockroaches, wings, teeth—was surging.
No.
It's not a cat!
That's not a Quadrupedal Beast. Something is wrong! It's a mermaid! No, something more dangerous than a mermaid, I mean, that specific shape of the halo is something I've seen somewhere….
'……Kim Soleum?'
Baek Saheon suddenly snapped his head up.
"What are you doing."
"Ah, no, nothing."
With a stiff neck, he looked at the alley corner again….
The shadow was gone.
The red halo beyond the corner had vanished like a lie.
"……."
Pretending to search, he moved with stiff steps toward the corner.
His heart was pounding.
And the moment he turned the corner, he saw it.
……On the ground, there was a sentence written as if the dust had been carved with sharp claws or something similar.
Prepare for death.
"……!!"
Phew.
'Atmosphere setting complete.'
With this, I've laid the groundwork to lure the Daydream Inc. employees if necessary.
I suppressed a sigh while running through the alleys.
'As expected, Baek Saheon's eye performance is good.'
The effect of the eye-shaped equipment I gave him is definitely certain. Honestly, it feels like it's at a level that doesn't quite match the cost-benefit of the Brainwashing Fountain Pen I received in exchange.
'I haven't even been able to use it once because I'm afraid I'll be suspected of being a spy….'
Now that items have become precious, I’m having all sorts of thoughts.
Anyway, I grasped the situation itself by seeing it with my own eyes. …In a place where infected entities run rampant, the chaos where children and adults kill each other.
Hell.
'…I feel like I'm going to throw up.'
The bigger problem… is that I'm lacking.
Time, information, power.
All of it.
'…How on earth am I supposed to save the kids here?'
The shock fades, and reality sets in.
There is no answer.
'If I tell the agents this, there's a chance they'll say it's better to just humanely kill them all….'
It looks like a situation where even taking care of myself is overwhelming.
Moreover. In any case, the moment the sun sets today, I will leave this Supernatural Disaster together with the agents.
I know.
Even if I found out this horrific truth right now, it's not like I have a responsibility to save them, and since my own situation is precarious, it's more comfortable to just ignore it.
Roughly staying low, killing time for a day, and leaving seemed like a reasonable solution.
But….
'…Somehow, it feels ominous.'
I already know about this duality.
But will I be able to escape safely based on the 'Disaster Management Bureau's' method because I'm treated as a young child…?
'…There might be a possibility that I can't.'
I thought it would be better to investigate more deeply and prepare countermeasures.
If I can save even one more child in this process… that would be good.
And since it's a ghost story with many significant aspects, I might find an item that could unexpectedly help my future survival or some unexpected information if I dig deeper.
'…Alright.'
Let's do what I can.
For now, the Hyunmoo Team 1 agents won't look for me even if I don't show myself before the promised afternoon time.
Since the children are scattered across a wide space, it won't be awkward even if we don't run into each other.
'A method, a usable method….'
I searched through the <Dark Exploration Record> in my head, which had now become quite blurred in detail, and pondered if there might be a hint.
Even if it wasn't about the Mermaid Tomb itself, searching for similar ghost stories might bring a countermeasure to mind that's worth trying….
Oh, wait a minute.
"…!"
Ah.
'There was one.'
Another Dark Exploration Record where this Mermaid Tomb was mentioned…!
Even more, that darkness… is one I've already experienced.
'…Alright.'
Let's try it.
I moved my four legs again.
I run.
Danger lurks everywhere in the city ruined by the infection of monstrous creatures, but since I'm in the body of a nimble Quadrupedal Beast, it's a bit better.
'Because I'm small, it's easy to evade.'
My destination while running, avoiding mucus and ulcers, was clear.
'The western outskirts.'
A place far from the infection colony.
Among them, specifically… a place that felt relatively safe because there were few ulcerous masses.
But since it's not a residential area with items, no daydream employee visits it.
The Mer-child… are also not there.
That's why exploration is slow here.
'Somewhere here… Yes.'
Found it.
Amidst the half-collapsed and old buildings, I see the door of a small brick house that has become a semi-basement as the ground collapsed….
And if you look closely at the corner of that door, you can see this writing.
Moonlight Tattoo Shop
"…!"
In a more ornate cursive than what I had seen before, it is smallly engraved at the edge of the door.
"……."
Found it.
The back door of the Moonlight Tattoo Shop.
A connected door was also found in Qterw-C-1642 (Mermaid Tomb), but a Doorplate saying 'Only taking reservation customers' was hanging.
This appears to be a closed back door, not the main entrance.
All signals to open the door and infiltrate failed.
It was one of the various sightings of the Moonlight Tattoo Shop.
However, in most sightings, the door was closed so that one could not enter the tattoo shop, and there were no visit records secured by Daydream other than the one using 'Vacant Room' that I had used.
Actually, even on that door, a small window made so one could check the outside is completely covered with a note.
Currently taking reservation customers only.
This thing.
'…I don't have a reservation, but.'
Knock, knock.
After politely knocking on the door with my front paw, I slid the prepared note under the door.
It was hard to write with my front paw.
-Hello. I'm the person who received a tattoo cover-up last time, and I came by because I have an inquiry related to that.
"……."
And a few seconds later.
I heard it.
Click.
The sound of the back door unlocking.
"…!!"
It worked.
I jumped up on my hind legs, grabbed the doorknob to open it, and quickly slipped inside before the door closed.
Into Moonlight Tattoo Shop.
Discussion