In the frozen air.
A voice from outside the steel door, the only entrance to the narrow space where the ghost story was quarantined.
Teacher?
…
Teacher?
I brought some educational materials I prepared!
“Wh…”
I covered Baek Saheon’s mouth. He tried to struggle on reflex before freezing solid.
Because the Sergeant and I were both staring at the steel door without moving a muscle.
“…”
“…”
It became quiet outside.
The voice of the ■■ Kindergarten teacher could no longer be heard from outside the door, as if by magic.
But I could already guess their identity.
‘... Supervisor Park Minseong.’
The person who used to work at the front of the Annex now stood right behind the isolated door on the second floor basement, having abandoned their workplace.
In a completely contaminated state.
‘…’
Inside my uniform, though the fragments of a body I barely knew, a chilling sensation ran up my spine.
‘What kind of trouble has Director Cheong caused?’
I cautiously took one step toward the steel door.
Beep.
“...!”
The door unlocked.
The door had been opened via the Security Team’s authentication procedure. I sensed the Sergeant beside me step forward and push down his cap. The door creaks open. And through that gap…
A hand shot in.
Teacher, look at this!
Wearing a handpuppet.
Today’s story is. It’s…
The kindergarten teacher moves his fingers to make the doll look cute and lively, waving its arms and head. It has brown braided pigtails and rosy cheeks…
Little Red Riding Hood.
A child wearing a red hood.
Once upon a time, there lived a cute and brave little girl. She always wore a red cape, which her grandmother had made for her.
From the side.
I heard strange sounds.
One day, when the girl was on her way to her grandmother’s house with cake and butter…
She met a giant and hungry wolf.
I approached the door to try and stop this.
But strangely, my body wouldn’t move.
As if under someone’s control.
The hungry wolf spoke to Little Red Riding Hood.
‘Little Girl, where are you going?’
Another arm, its sleeve neatly rolled up, appeared through the crack in the door. A scheming wolf hand puppet converses with Little Red Riding Hood.
The wolf found out that Little Red Riding Hood was visiting her grandmother’s house, and it went to the grandmother’s house ahead of the girl and…
Ate the grandmother!
A dark figure flickered.
You have no idea how deliciously he swallowed her in one bite. Our ■■ Kindergarten students should also eat this well without being picky, right?
And this wolf’s appetite was endless, so he prepared another delicious meal as planned…
Little Red Riding Hood herself.
The sound of lips being licked.
Was heard.
The wolf, disguised as her grandmother, lay in bed and greeted Little Red Riding Hood!
Little Red Riding Hood tilted her head and asked,
‘Grandmother, why are your arms and legs so big?’
The wolf replied.
‘All the better to hug you with, my dear.’
‘Grandmother, why are your ears so big?’
‘All the better to hear you with, my dear.’
‘Grandmother, why are your eyes so big?’
‘All the better to see you with, my dear.’
‘Grandmother, why are your teeth so big?’
‘That’s…’
‘It’s to eat you.’
A black figure engulfed the space.
The sound of the Stone Altar shattering, the sound of tree branches being greedily chewed in a snout, all could be heard as everything was swallowed behind giant teeth.
The Sergeant was already gone.
“■■ child.”
A black silhouette boiled up, and from within it, countless bulging eyes and fanged maws erupted, covering the floor as sharp giant claws rolled the eyes, as if selecting prey. It snatched the doll that slipped through the gap in the door with its hands. ■■■■evil■■■kill■■th■■■■■ a perfect teacher doesn’t scream. Chaos, dust, pain, the beast’s viscous, tar-like fluids swallowing the space, a nauseating sound, and countless eyes.
A huge body of a four-legged creature, haphazardly and improperly stitched together, burst like a bomb out of the narrow quarantine room.
A massive wolf, drenched as if in tar, oozing dark, sticky fluid.
Its snout opens.
From both sides of its head.
“■delicious■ ■■■■.”
“Run■quick■■.”
Censored laughter echoes through the room.
Eyeballs roll.
A giant paw with claws bent to snatch the man with an eyepatch who is desperately trying to flee into a narrow corner. A melting head trying to wedge the tip of its snout through the crack in the door to get into the hallway beyond the half-open steel door…
The moment I witnessed that sight.
My body began to move.
‘...!’
I used my smoke to dash forward, blocking the snout of the giant beast. It’s difficult. There are two snouts.
At the same time, I tried to block the view of countless eyes on its claws with another plume of black smoke. The eyeballs try to push and pop out of the smoke. I can feel the drooling snout within the smoke. I feel the dizzying sensation that the moment I let go means ruin, but I have to somehow hold on until the Sergeant comes to his senses…
Gulp.
……?
Crunch, crunch.
Sounds of chewing, of swallowing, as if drinking. The sound of forcing dregs down a throat…
It came from within the smoke.
One of the wolf’s snouts…
…was swallowing my smoke.
!!
I clamped down on that snout again. This filthy, rotten, disgusting animal is eating me! How dare a third-rate piece of trash like this do this to ■■, but its overwhelming power of violence and appetite…
‘Shut up!’
What was that feeling of revulsion just now? What am I saying? I need to snap out of it. Again, again…, no! To stop the Sergeant somehow…
Ah.
I’ll read the wiki and delete it.
Yes, in the end, that’s all there is. This giant, bizarre beast will soon slip through the crack to devour me, slip through the gap, and swallow Supervisor Park Minseong and Baek Saheon whole. There’s not much time left. I can’t hold on either! Before that, I have to calm down and read despite the side effects.
…
…!!!
I understood.
‘If it’s Director Cheong.’
She would have aimed for this, too.
‘Using my ability…!’
The reason why I suddenly couldn’t move my body as if following someone’s command, and I now can move easily in a desperate situation.
‘So that I’d move in a panic and rashly use my wiki ability…!’
Then I would return to the state of 130666.
Having lost Kim Soleum’s sensibility and human judgement, I would revert to a hollow state where I could only make decisions as a Special Division employee based on my employment contract.
Then, automatically, I would…
-Director Cheong noticed.
…be stripped of my reason and serve as a good pawn again to the one who orchestrated this situation right outside.
It’s an excellent way to make 130666 to leave Director Ho’s project of his own accord in one fell swoop.
‘No.’
I had to avoid that helpless situation. But what if Supervisor Park Minseong or Baek Saheon dies in the meantime? Even if not, the Security Team on the same floor would surely be dispatched and the situation would spiral completely out of control.
I was cornered in a single move.
‘Damn it.’
Besides…
The final, unresolved question.
‘How on earth does Director Cheong know about my condition…?’
How does she know that if I try to suppress and neutralize a ghost story, I lose Kim Soleum’s identity?
I don’t know. But there’s no time.
Dread and urgency tangled together as all those thoughts flashed by in an instant.
But another way to subdue it…
“Ugh!”
Baek Saheon, who had been quickly moving again to a place with as little of the beast and smoke as possible, dropped a Nostalgia Candy.
I picked it up.
-While the Nostalgia Candy is melting in one’s mouth, it restores the user to the state of time in the past 10 years when their body and mind were healthiest.
The candy felt strangely larger in my hand than before.
“Wait! Don’t use it! There’s no way it’ll work! That thing’s a complete monster!”
I know.
I remember when the Nostalgia Kitty that had been around my neck as 130666 snapped.
But…
That alone is enough.
Just enough time to use the other method that worked for me.
‘Just an opening!’
I barely managed to toss the Nostalgia Candy into the snout of the beast that was chewing and swallowing me.
Snatch.
…Gulp.
The Nostalgia Candy, which should have rolled around the beast’s mouth for a while had melted away on its tongue like a slug doused in salt, but…
In that moment, it flickered and was revealed.
A human form.
‘...!’
But it was gone the next moment.
I took out another Nostalgia Candy and threw it between the giant beast’s teeth.
And this time, in sync with the flickering human form.
Jingle.
I took out a spare Jade Bell I had and stuck it into its flesh.
The Disaster Management Bureau’s precious item, which restores reason, rang with a clear sound.
“■■! Stop■■■!”
It was a state of Contamination so severe that its very essence had changed, like mine.
‘I just have to use the same method that worked on me…!’
I had to make it regain its sanity.
The giant four-legged beast, with its two snouts, countless eyes, and black teeth dripping tar, shook its body… then froze as if electrocuted.
And I took out another bell and embedded it in the wolf’s torso. And I kept shaking it, making sure it was audible. Again, the next bell…
“Don’t do it.”
It grabbed my hand.
A human arm with giant claws.
“Any more, then, side effects…”
And the beast’s form melted away.
The figure that had been sticking its snout out of the doorway melted into a sticky black liquid, and the burnt and stitched-up beast’s form wavered…
The Sergeant appeared.
“...”
The eyeballs on his temples still rolled around as if searching for prey, and the sharp claws that had gouged the steel door left violent marks.
But at the same time, the Sergeant took something out from his coat and stabbed it into his own stomach.
Like a tranquilizer…
But it wasn't a liquid…
‘... A stone?’
Soon, the strength gradually drained from the Sergeant’s body.
He slowly shrank back to his familiar, listless, and unmotivated appearance, finding his original impression…
But I remembered.
The form that had been revealed by the Nostalgia Candy just now.
'It seemed different from the Sergeant’s current appearance...'
A man in a suit wearing a Wolf Mask.
I thought I might’ve seen him before.
"..."
In the middle of the completely destroyed stone altar quarantine room.
The Sergeant stopped, his eyes open, as if sinking into silence.
…Subjugation, successful.
Thud.
"Heok."
Beside me, I heard Baek Saheon gasping for breath, and from the crack in the door, the Contaminated voice of Supervisor Park Minseong, endlessly bleeding from the stumps of his severed arms as he recited the educational manual.
Barely, I pushed myself up and approached Supervisor Park Minseong...
"What a filthy mess."
The broken steel door opened completely.
A figure walking out from beside Sprout Class's ■■■, who was curled up trying to wipe away the blood.
Along with the sound of dress shoes, that voice echoed...
"What is all this commotion?"
Director Cheongdalrae.
The eyes of one whose age was impossible to guess swept over the surroundings and landed on me.
"Are you aware that an unreported intrusion like this is grounds for disciplinary action? To go so far as to damage a front desk employee who came to you."
...
"You won't be able to avoid disciplinary action for this. A shame, but you'll have to withdraw from that preposterous project team. You."
I'm screwed.
A sense of doom shot up to the top of my head. I tried to step back, but my feet wouldn't move. Director Cheongdalrae's hand reached out and came toward my head...
Knock, knock.
"…!"
Beyond the open door, the door of the quarantine room across the hall.
A polite knock was heard from there, and then, like magic, the door opened.
It was the Fox Counseling Room.
Backlit by what looked like pouring sunlight, Ho Yuwon walked out from there.
"My, speak of the devil. Did you start mistaking your own station from all that bluffing?"
"Executive Director Cheong Dallae."
Director Ho approached.
"What is all this? I'm truly perplexed."
And he stood next to me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
"130666-nim was just on a temporary patrol at my request, and it seems an unfortunate accident suddenly occurred, which he then subdued. I wonder who caused such an accident. Really, it seems like a front desk employee appeared in a state of extreme Contamination, all of a sudden."
"..."
"Come to think of it, I heard you prefer methods that utilize the Contamination of the Security Team, Director Cheong."
"And you arbitrarily transferred a Special Division employee to your project team."
"That's a completely different case!"
Director Ho's voice turned gentle, as if in pity.
"Recruiting a Daydream Inc. employee for a Project is within my authority as an executive. Of course, if you try to use those employees for your own personal use, as if they were your private servants, then that would be unacceptable behavior..."
"Personal use, you say."
I heard Director Cheong laugh.
"I don't think that's something you should be saying to me. Director Ho."
"..."
"Lately..."
Her eyes looked at the door of the quarantine room that Director Ho had used as a passage.
"I've been hearing reports that the Fox Counseling Room is often empty."
Director Ho's expression didn't change.
"Ah, of course, you and the Fox Counseling Room have no special connection. It's just that talk is starting to spread that your movements this year are incomprehensible..."
"..."
"I'm looking forward to your performance this year. I'm curious as to how long we'll be able to use the title of fellow Development Division director."
Director Cheong's gaze returned to me.
"And how long you'll be keeping my employee."
If I had saliva, I would have swallowed.
"Even a domesticated beast knows not to bite its master. I never thought an employee who barely clung to life thanks to the contract I offered would do something like this..."
"..."
"Well, I'll help with the cleanup, nonetheless. Since that would also be for the good of my company."
Director Cheong reached out her hand and...
Grabbed Supervisor Park Minseong's head.
The Sprout Class Teacher who was still reciting the educational manual in a fit.
"Now, shall we call the Security Team and move this area to the Security Team's training zone?"
Wait.
"Seeing how he's been consumed by Contamination, it'll be difficult for him to work for a while, so won't he need retraining? Of course, the educational services will be provided at a special rate for employees, but given the depth..."
Director Cheong said, looking at the arms I had tried to staunch the bleeding from.
"I think he'll probably rack up quite a bit more debt..."
"..."
"This is where I feel I should offer some generous terms."
From her tone, I realized.
Director Cheong knows exactly.
That Supervisor Park Minseong had cooperated with me, with Director Ho.
That I care about him.
"For this 'unlucky' Annex front desk employee, I'll have to prepare a new employment contract specially..."
"Just like the one you received."
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