The promised three days.
The final day at ‘Horizon Lodge’ dawned.
“…….”
The civil servant rose from his bed.
He wasn't in a particularly good mood.
It was because he felt that things had gone awry from a certain point….
If the job itself hadn't been very pleasant to begin with, no one would have felt particularly good.
However, since his shift was not yet over, he put on his prepared work clothes, strapped on his gear, took his tools, and stepped out of the room.
And then, he was met with a sight that was not at all welcome.
“……Phew.”
The first-floor living room was a bloodbath.
A pentagram had been drawn in blood as if offering a sacrifice to someone, and severed body parts were placed on each section.
And on the only clean sofa, an unconscious woman lay slumped.
She was the wife of the couple.
“…….”
The civil servant hesitated for a moment, but eventually decided to carry out the task as prescribed.
Because he knew the danger of arbitrary judgment.
And….
“Ugh…… Uh, uuuuh?!”
Because they weren't exactly people worth living.
“Aaaaah!”
The woman, suddenly regaining consciousness on the sofa, screamed.
For in front of her stood a burly man clad in a black waterproof raincoat, holding a butcher knife that was easily over 35cm long in his hand!!
The man holding the slaughtering knife stifled a sigh.
‘Of all times.’
She had to wake up now.
He was tired.
Even more so than usual.
No, how on earth could a situation not go according to plan to this extent……!
The civil servant reflexively recalled his first day at the lodge.
The first target he had set his sights on was one of the spouses.
The Management Bureau’s analysis was that they were an easy target due to their greed, and that killing one member of the couple would create a sense of fear, making subsequent tasks easier.
He intended to lure the man into the kitchen and realize the foreshadowing in the picture frame, just as the impulses whispered in his mind had suggested…….
‘I’ll have to burn him in the furnace.’
But someone had already claimed it.
‘…!?’
A corpse was already inside the furnace.
And in a quite avant-garde manner at that.
…??
Only question marks floated in his head.
Clearly, the Disaster Management Bureau had used their accumulated know-how to acquire and assign the specific cassette tape so that he would be chosen for the role of the serial killer.
So why did another killer suddenly pop up?
Even then, he thought perhaps the irregularity of the supernatural disaster had broken out again.
Until he found the clothes of the two university students, who had been turned into ground meat, in the backyard that afternoon.
‘…….’
He had no choice but to quietly hang the large hammer he had prepared back in the wardrobe….
By this point, he couldn't help but realize.
Some crazy bastard knew everything and was beating him to the kill.
It was maddening.
As if to mark the final day, they had even done the dismemberment first today, so there was no way he wouldn't have a headache.
What kind of insane situation was this?
But his task remained unchanged. That is, even in this maddening mess, he had to perform his final duty according to priority.
That was a judgment worthy of the Disaster Management Bureau.
“Heek….”
The short recollection ended.
The civil servant looked at the prey beneath his eyes, unable to even resist.
Feeling deep fatigue at what was about to happen, just as he was about to swing the knife sharply.
“Agent 007.”
“…….”
He turned his head toward the voice.
He saw someone leaning against the second-floor railing, looking down at the living room.
The office worker.
The seller he had met through Salmon Market.
“You don't have to kill her.”
Kim Soleum looked down.
The individual in question would experience mental and physical mutations, firmly believing they have inherited the inspiration and legacy of a legendary killer.
Indeed, the civil servant looked like a full-fledged killer to anyone’s eyes, from the black raincoat to the gleaming butcher knife.
To anyone, he was the serial killer chosen by this disaster.
However, Kim Soleum knew.
‘Even if he looks like that, he can be reasoned with.’
-Are you sure, Friend?
I'm sure.
‘Agents of the Disaster Management Bureau prepare countermeasures tailored to the disaster.’
For instance, like the holster peeking out from the raincoat near the civil servant's chest.
==========
Dark Exploration Record / Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau
/ Item
Tether Handler
An equipment-type item in the shape of a black holster.
When worn, it provides resistance against supernatural psychosis of Hollow-sanctioned grade or lower.
Item usage condition: Civil servant of Grade 8 or higher belonging to the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
==========
That was mental defense equipment.
Civil servants weren't idiots; would they send someone into a ghost story where they could be reborn as a killer through brainwashing without any protection?
‘There’s no way they’d send them in completely vulnerable.’
After all, these were civil servants deployed mainly to dangerous ghost stories where fatalities were a given.
‘It would be a disaster if they met some sinister pharmaceutical company employee using favor-building items like Smile Stickers.’
Exactly.
Kim Soleum spoke to the civil servant standing expressionless.
“You really don’t need to kill her. All the foreshadowing has already been realized.”
“…….”
“Because I did it all.”
Silence.
“Did you kill them?”
Hmm.
Certainly, this disaster does not end unless a series of murders occurs.
According to the <Dark Exploration Record>, if one interferes artificially and murders don't happen until the end, they usually end up killing each other during the inheritance part, resulting in a catastrophe.
‘That’s why they must have set it up for the civil servant to do the killing directly.’
Since the civil servant mustn't die by mistake, they designated him to become the serial killer and managed it that way.
That was the rule.
Either commit serial murder.
“No.”
“…!”
“I just made it seem like they were killed.”
Or make it judged as no different from a serial murder!
“There were corpses.”
“That’s true, but….”
The office worker, Kim Soleum, rubbed the back of his neck.
“But they weren't corpses I made.”
“…!”
“Did you know? This lodge has a basement.”
Kim Soleum recalled a part of the poem that was inside the Pure Gold frame.
It didn't just contain foreshadowing for the method of murder.
There was other foreshadowing as well.
The sound of hopping and laughing
Thump, thump on the wooden floor beneath my feet
The dining table is bountiful
I hear humming
This paragraph was a hint.
Thump, thump on the wooden floor beneath my feet
Meaning the sound echoed because there was an empty space under the floor.
And….
‘Since that poem compared murder to food…….’
The dining table is bountiful
Something related to serial murder was bountiful.
Sure enough.
“I found embalmed body parts and organs on display in the basement.”
“…!”
There was a workshop.
“As you said, it seems serial murders have happened in this lodge before. …I thought I was going to faint.”
Seriously.
Perhaps they were accessories derived from serial murders that occurred in previous cycles.
In any case, after going down to the basement at night, repeatedly telling himself ‘ghosts don’t exist’ to steel his nerves, the state of Kim Soleum’s heart upon seeing that sight…… well, I’ll move on.
Anyway, the important thing was that he had devised a new way to utilize those crazy props.
The civil servant realized.
“…The corpses that have appeared so far.”
“Yes.”
Kim Soleum said sheepishly.
“Not many of them looked intact, right?”
Because he had recycled the parts from the basement to make it look like they had just been killed!
That’s why Baek Saheon needed to be the first victim.
‘……I couldn't have done it without an assistant.’
Regardless of embalming or whatever, manipulating dismembered corpses alone at night with bare hands to recreate a murder scene?
Just imagining it made him want to cut ties with the world….
In any case, although Baek Saheon looked like he wanted to spout a stream of curses, he yielded to the ultimate Quantum Choice: ‘This is the only way we can get out of here alive. Or do you just want to die?’
It meant he quietly became a good assistant for the murder tricks.
The two worked hard to forge the murder scenes.
They put firewood in the kitchen furnace and burned it as if it had exploded, then stuck a foot in and put Baek Saheon's sneakers on it.
The pulverized bone and meat in the backyard were recycled from food ingredients found in the freezer behind the warehouse, and they had just stripped off the clothes and scattered them appropriately.
The state of the living room now, strewn with body parts, was the same.
Though, Kim Soleum did all the actual ambushing and kidnapping of the victims by himself.
‘Ambushing was easier with Braun’s abilities, so it couldn't be helped.’
Anyway, Kim Soleum shrugged as he finished his explanation.
“I hid the people away and then set up the scenes to look like they’d been killed. Perhaps because I used real corpses, I wasn't suspected.”
“…….”
“I thought the killer would at least stay still out of bewilderment.”
However.
“But… still, someone killed people.”
“…….”
“The allergy and the landslide.”
Both died before Kim Soleum could do anything.
Even if the landslide could be considered a death caused by getting caught up in this supernatural phenomenon, the allergy was not something that could happen by chance.
Unless one was Sherlock Holmes, no one could figure out what kind of fatal allergy a person they’d met for less than a day had just through observation.
‘Actually, I didn't know either until I happened to talk to them.’
Therefore, it was even more impossible for him to have brought peanuts, the allergen, to the lodge in advance for the sake of murder.
If so….
It meant it was the work of someone who knew the profiles of the people coming here in advance and had prepared for the murders.
“The anaphylactic shock, was it you, Agent?”
“…….”
The civil servant did not deny it.
And Kim Soleum….
‘Hmm, as I thought.’
Wasn't shocked at all!
You might ask if he couldn't show at least a little mourning when innocent civilians were dying and being victimized?
The thing is, they weren't exactly ‘innocent civilians.’
‘The government doesn't pick victims through Russian Roulette.’
The civilian conscripts for the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau are selected through the ‘Scales of Evil.’
The scale is weighted with ‘Unmotivated Murder,’ and those heavier than that are classified as targets for conscription.
In other words, the government only picks people who have been judged to have committed acts more insane and more malicious than random murder and puts them into these ghost stories.
‘If they absolutely must operate this disaster periodically, they gather people who deserve to die and put them in.’
A decision made to maintain a minimum of ethics. It was typical of an official organization.
‘This time too… I suppose they’re all people who deserve to die by the government's standards.’
And Kim Soleum’s guess was accurate.
In fact, the man and woman who appeared to be a couple were in an adulterous relationship, and the man’s original wife and young son had committed family suicide due to the shock and financial hardship.
The university students were perpetrators who had been prosecuted for killing a classmate through group bullying but were released due to insufficient evidence, after which they entered university together and joined a hiking club.
Even the surrogate driver, a child sex offender who had not yet been caught.
Even without knowing such specific facts, Kim Soleum, who had guessed the general idea, nodded inwardly.
‘Hmm. It must be a dream lineup.’
Surely the government had pulled strings to ensure the tapes went to them.
‘And then they deploy one civil servant to manage and supervise all of this.’
That person who was now answering Kim Soleum.
The civil servant opened his mouth without agitation.
“They are all criminals.”
“…….”
“Every person in this lodge is a wicked individual whose crimes were so severe that, if the criminal law had functioned properly, they might have been sentenced to death in other countries.”
Except for you, who does not possess a tape.
However, the civil servant was inwardly unsure of how well these words would be received.
Even more so when reflecting on his experiences with civilians he had met while performing his duties until now.
He lifted his head, feeling a deep sense of fatigue.
But….
“Hmm… I see. No wonder. I had a general idea.”
“…!”
To his surprise, the office worker on the second floor nodded readily.
“Anyway, besides those two, the rest of the people are alive and well.”
Kim Soleum said nonchalantly, looking slightly sheepish.
“Well, no matter how wicked someone is, there must be a psychological burden for the person who kills them directly, so it doesn't seem like a bad outcome….”
“…….”
In the end, the civil servant asked.
“Who are you?”
Forging murder scenes out of concern that a murder might occur, and even trusting himself, who wore a clearly suspicious outfit, through rational thinking?
This was not the mental strength of an ordinary person.
“Hmm.”
The man before him let out a long sigh.
“Just… someone who inevitably gets caught up in these kinds of situations easily.”
“Are you perhaps affiliated with the Management Bureau?”
“Not a chance. Though I have heard the rumors. It's interesting to meet an Agent in person like this… Ah,”
The office worker turned his head.
Creak.
The back door of the kitchen was opening.
Just like on the first day.
“It seems the Caretaker has returned.”
The ending scene of the disaster was approaching.
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