The agents of the Disaster Management Bureau turn their heads.
“Whoa!”
A wire, tipped with sharp, ornate claws, shoots out and wraps around the hem of the Mer-child’s clothes in an instant.
It is Team A Assistant Manager’s specialized weapon.
“Huh? Fireworks!”
The young child laughed.
Listening to the laughter of the contaminated Mer-child, Jin Nasol cut through the most lethal parts first.
The areas that secrete paralyzing and infectious fluids.
Squelch.
“Aaaaaah!”
The massive tail attached to the Mer-child was severed.
Blood and mucus burst forth.
“It hurts! It hurts!”
The agent's attack grazed by a hair's breadth.
Without a moment’s delay, Jin Nasol used the wire to pull the neutralized Mer-child, its tail now gone, and grabbed it in one hand.
“Ugh!”
And then, she declared:
“Come any closer, and it dies.”
“…!”
It was a perfectly rational choice.
‘My legs aren’t right.’
Because her calf, which had been struck by the Bell-Blade earlier, was still paralyzed, Jin Nasol had been forced to use items even as she ran here chasing that ominous cat-being.
In this state, facing off against two Disaster Management Bureau agents while trying to escape with the items would be foolish.
Jin Nasol loathed foolishness.
Thus, she chose.
“I told you not to come any closer.”
“…!”
Even if words don’t translate, certain communications function through gestures alone.
“Bronzie, wait a second.”
Agent Choi, who valued every single human life, quickly raised his hands as if surrendering to Jin Nasol while his mind raced to find an alternative.
However….
That was not the standard response of the Disaster Management Bureau.
‘A hostage.’
A standard figure of the Management Bureau, Agent Bronze, looked at the villain before him with dark eyes.
Those human scum intended to flee with items that could save twelve children, all for their own selfish greed.
‘Even though they could escape without taking them.’
If he let them go like this, twelve children would die.
And the Bureau’s priorities were clear.
Maximum survival with minimum sacrifice.
—If sacrificing one civilian can save more civilians.
‘Then that is what is done.’
“…Bronzie?”
Agent Bronze made his decision quickly.
He raised his Glass Hand Cannon and charged.
“Hey…!”
But at that moment, another creature moved simultaneously.
Jingle.
“Huh? No, wait….”
Amidst Baek Saheon’s panicked voice, the cat stepped off his shoulder and leaped down silently.
In the cat’s mouth was a conch shell tied with a golden string—the ‘Angel’s Sigh.’
It had been taken from Baek Saheon’s bag.
“Hey!”
The cat dashed straight toward Jin Nasol.
“…!”
Jin Nasol reflexively prepared to kick and fire her wire, but the cat’s target was not the employee.
Instead, the cat headed slightly more to the side, downward.
“Huh? A cat doll….”
The Mer-child Jin Nasol was holding hostage.
The cat, still holding the conch shell in its teeth, pressed it completely against the Mer-child’s ear.
“…!”
A faint voice resonated from within the shell.
A humming.
It sounded like the beautiful song of a siren, or perhaps a lullaby a parent might hum while cradling a child.
It felt like a line from a stirring national anthem, or a hymn overflowing with cheers and vitality.
However, only one specific passage was taken from it.
Only one melody emerged softly and tenderly from inside the conch shell, tickling the child’s ear.
“…Ah?”
The Mer-child with the severed tail froze.
Mmm, mmm-mmm, mmm, mmm-mmm-mmm.
The bleeding slowed.
The inflammation on the face and limbs that had been covered in ulcers subsided, the syndrome of infection that had twisted the limbs vanished, and the vocal cords returned to their original form.
Of course, it wasn't as if the child perfectly returned to their original state as if reversing time.
However, the rapidly spreading infection lost its momentum, and the child's inherent human life flared up like a flame meeting kindling.
In the next moment.
“Huuuuu….”
The child, gasping for breath, regained the appearance of a sick child.
“…….”
“…….”
As everyone momentarily froze out of human instinct at the miraculous sight.
“W-what is this? Mommy…!”
The child began to burst into convulsive sobs.
As the infection subsided and the hallucinations cleared, the Sparkling Dragon Palace vanished, and they began to see the gruesome reality with their own eyes.
“…!”
‘It can even break the brainwashing…!’
But while the child, who had been cast out of the ecstatic and beautiful ‘Sparkling Dragon Palace,’ continued to cry.
Surprisingly, the cat went and let the child embrace it!
“Kitty, kitty….”
Even as its head was pulled by the child’s rather rough grip, the cat sat perfectly still.
Though it looked even more eerie because of that, it was a clear signal.
That thing was friendly toward children.
‘Is this a ghost story where the rules change depending on age?’
While Jin Nasol analyzed the situation like an elite member of the Field Exploration team, she did not let go of the hostage she held.
However, she no longer blatantly suppressed the child. It was impossible to predict how that danger in the shape of a cat would react.
But….
“These guys really aren't in their right minds.”
There were those who aimed precisely for that opening.
“…!”
A bullet flew.
Jin Nasol saw it. The opposing agent fired a Glass Hand Cannon aiming for her legs, and simultaneously, the one who had already approached tried to bind her upper body.
‘Hah.’
Jin Nasol intentionally fell backward.
Her body, losing its balance and moving amorphously, narrowly avoided the agents' suppression.
And at the same time, she flicked her hand and tossed the hostage forward.
Toward Agent Choi.
“…!”
The moment Agent Choi caught the child who was hugging the cat.
‘There are plenty of hostages outside.’
Jin Nasol made a cold judgment and prepared to kick the door open.
‘Retreating.’
The other Daydream employees who witnessed the situation also moved to follow her lead, and just as Baek Saheon was about to run while clutching the bag containing the remaining eleven ‘Angel’s Sighs.’
[This way]
The cat looked at them.
“…!”
The ominous cat quietly walked out from the arms of the child held by Agent Choi.
“What are you….”
The quadrupedal beast walked among the frozen people. And passing everyone, it stood before something.
The Mer-child’s tail that Jin Nasol had cut off.
A string of ulcerated masses.
[This way]
The cat’s form flickered like static as it looked back at the people.
“Wh-what do you want us to do with that….”
[This way]
Those blood-red eyes stared into me.
A gaze that seemed to already know everything about my story.
“…….”
Fuck.
Baek Saheon quickly picked up the tail with his gloved hand and tried to shove it into the front of the waterproof bag.
But before he could, Agent Choi snatched the tail away with lightning speed.
“Ah…!”
Agent Choi firmly gripped the tail, which was still writhing and struggling to parasitically latch onto him—the ‘child’—and spoke to the cat.
“You induced the attack because you needed this?”
Silence.
“What use does this tail have?”
The cat did not answer.
But it did answer.
[This way]
By staring at the employees of Daydream Inc.
“…!”
Agent Choi stored the tail in a Seal box and hurriedly began to write words on the floor with the chalk he carried.
A single connection point where the gazes of the Sparkling Dragon Palace and the Mermaid Tomb were shared.
—You guys use these tails, don't you?
“…!”
—If you tell me how and where you use them first, I won’t fight you anymore until we leave here~ I swear on an agent’s honor! ^^
—By any chance, do you use them when you escape? I already know you're escaping on an Escape Pod. Where and how do you use it?
‘Crazy bastard….’
However, Agent Choi had a reason for his confidence.
—I think the cat wants us to talk, too?
[10]
“Ah, seriously!”
Fed up with the cat starting a countdown in sync, Baek Saheon scanned the surroundings.
‘I don’t want to be the one to take the fall….’
Fortunately, Kang Yihak quickly bent down and started writing a reply.
—Oh, how much will you pay if I tell you? lol
‘There’s another crazy bastard here.’
—We’re broke ㅠㅠ You rich guys just bear with it! You don’t want your heads to burst because of the cat~
“Geez.”
‘You sons of bitches…!’
In the end, under the pressure of the countdown, Baek Saheon took the hint and wrote the answer himself instead of his money-crazed colleague.
—You already know everything.. The tail is needed during the escape process.
—But we’ve never savagely cut the tails of Mer-childs; we only cut the minimum from General Infected that are already completely contaminated. We have to live too..
‘It’s obvious they’ll have a fit if we say we killed a kid!’
So he had phrased it as nicely as possible, but Agent Choi didn’t even blink.
—In what way do you use it? Fuel? An entrance ticket? A sacrifice?
Is it okay to spill this much?
[6]
Damn it.
—An entrance ticket.
As he wrote, Baek Saheon reflexively glared at the spot where the cat had been. You squeezed us to death with that countdown, are you satisfied now? You psychopathic bastard….
But the cat was already gone from that spot.
“…!”
It was suddenly standing in front of the window.
On two legs, no less.
[This way]
The cat's posture was bizarre.
As if someone were forcibly controlling the cat, it stood up like a ghost on two legs by the window and flicked its left front paw up to point somewhere to the west.
That place was….
‘…The direction of the Escape Pods!’
And then, it plummeted straight down below the window.
“…!!”
People rushed to the window and looked down, but there was nothing below….
The cat had vanished.
“……Haa.”
Suddenly, the air felt lighter.
While several people caught their breath and their minds raced.
“The Escape Pod… the Escape Pod!”
Baek Saheon clutched his head.
“Right! It was telling us to get the hell out on the Escape Pod!”
“What?”
“It told us to p-prepare for death. I wondered what that meant, but now I think it meant it’ll kill us if we don’t all leave on the Escape Pod…!”
“…!”
“We have to get out quickly….”
But the employees of Daydream Inc. did not easily forget the danger.
The agents of the Disaster Management Bureau were still in this space.
And….
The influence of the behavior shown by whatever that cat-thing had been.
“…….”
At that moment, Agent Choi was deep in thought.
The cat had made them remove the tail from the Mer-child and had healed it with the conch shell.
Recalling that behavior, which anyone would see as friendly toward children….
‘Hmm.’
The agent calmly wrote on the floor.
—Seeing as the cat showed us the locations of the conch shells and even demonstrated the treatment, I think it wants us to use them to save as many kids as possible..
—Anyone here want to die a dog's death to a monster because they got greedy for items?
‘Fuck.’
But the agent’s words didn’t end there.
—Otherwise, shall we temporarily cooperate until everyone gets out safely?
“…!”
—Let’s try to take as many children as possible safely. Using the conch shells, to that Escape Pod you guys are taking out.
“…….”
Jin Nasol pushed Baek Saheon aside and stepped forward without hesitation.
“…!”
And while staring at the agent without even blinking, she wrote on the floor.
—If you try anything funny, I’ll shoot to kill.
“Okay~”
Thus, a bizarre temporary alliance was formed.
A composition that could use the senses of both the Mermaid Tomb and the Sparkling Dragon Palace, and with enough numbers to handle a Biological Disaster while taking care of multiple children at once.
‘…Was this induced?’
Ryu Jaekwan’s eyes twitched.
Just what kind of Supernatural Phenomenon was that ghost story in the shape of a cat for it to…… no, for now, the important thing was to get out of here safely and complete the mission.
Yes, he wasn't even alone right now. Since the rookie had joined as well…….
Wait!
“Grapes!”
Ryu Jaekwan hurriedly turned back to his superior with a stiff face.
The rookie, who must still be among the children looking for civilians who could be rescued, had been left alone…!
“We have to find her immediately. If she gets separated here….”
“Wait, wait! Let’s stay calm. We were supposed to meet this evening anyway. We’ll probably run into her on the way to collect the kids.”
That was the problem…!
‘I shouldn't be bringing these human scum along…!’
“Let me start by threatening these guys a bit.”
Instead of letting Baek Saheon keep the conch shells, Agent Choi took the General Infected tail tissues they had collected as collateral and confirmed they weren't lying about the Escape Pod’s location.
He even completed his precautions by secretly attaching a tracking device to a conch shell while pretending to bicker over them.
“There we go.”
Finally, they firmly decided to meet in front of the building near where the Escape Pod was located.
“Now, let’s go gather the children.”
“…Yes.”
In any case, the encounter between this crazy pseudo-religious pharmaceutical company and Agent Grapes was unavoidable.
Ryu Jaekwan felt a chill in his chest, but he thought he should be the first to spot her and make her cover her face with a hat or something.
His superior would understand if he said he wanted to protect the rookie’s identity from the employees of a pseudo-religious pharmaceutical company.
“She’s at the fountain! Over there.”
“Yes.”
But the moment they met Agent Grapes at the fountain in the center of the city.
“Agent!”
Ryu Jaekwan realized his plan had been meaningless.
Through the Sun Catcher he held up to one eye as if it were permanently attached for emergencies, he saw it clearly.
The rookie agent, noticing them and turning around….
“I was gathering the children and organizing them by age!”
Ulcers covered half of her face.
“…….”
Ryu Jaekwan stopped in his tracks.
Breaking out in a cold sweat, his trembling gaze swept over his fellow agent who now had the appearance of a child….
A mass of cells like a long umbilical cord hung down from her Upper Body.
A thick mass of flesh flowed out from her waist, and ulcers hung dangling like a tail.
It was hideous and gruesome, but because of the nature of the underwater city and the fact that it looked like a tail….
This Biological Disaster was called a mermaid.
“But, playing together is so much fun….”
The Mer-child who had been an agent smiled and waved her hand.
“Can’t we stay just one more day?”
Seeing the rookie completely infected by the Biological Disaster, the two agents stopped, their faces turning deathly pale.
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