Chapter 108

The security chief gave me a towel so I could clean up my bloodstained cleaning uniform.

I mechanically wiped it down, trying not to look beside me. The grotesque corpse of the Nameless Radiance Church member whose head the security chief had burst would be lying there.

“Hmm. Certainly not a pretty sight! Dirtying the floor without the slightest aesthetic sensib—Oh, Mr. Roe Deer! Something interesting is happening!”

“...??”

I reflexively turned my head.

The bloody mess of flesh and crushed head sprawled there was already melting away.

As though time were rapidly rewinding, what had been drying onto the floor became someone's withered body...

A human corpse.

From the gaping mouth of the figure, too emaciated to identify, fell a brittle roll of old paper.

The illegible golden letters on its inner surface writhed and changed into Korean the moment my gaze touched them.

Mimic Scripture, Verse 4

Story Snatcher

“...!”

A divine law.

You could call it the Nameless Radiance Church's ghost-story generator.

By swallowing a fragment of divine-law scripture and performing a ritual at an altar, an initiate could wield the corresponding power.

The security chief slowly approached it and squatted down.

He was probably going to take it—

“Rank four... Hey, do you want it?”

Pardon?

“The company... pays pretty well for those, I think... Sell it later and say you found it somewhere else...”

“... You took care of it, Jay. Is it really all right for me to keep it for myself?”

“What does it matter...?”

“...”

“I don't particularly need... money...”

No, I meant whether I could keep it personally when company security had handled the situation...

Still, since he was offering, I promptly took it.

“Thank you.”

Aside from selling it to the company, several uses had immediately occurred to me.

'The more cards I have to play, the better.'

Besides, after all this shit, I deserved to get something out of it...

To avoid any possible effects, I wrapped the object in “Wrapping Paper 12B357-Na” and slipped it into my inventory while pretending to put it in my pocket.

'Whew.'

“Once again... thank you for helping me. You saved my life.”

“Don't mention it...”

Meanwhile, memories of the past two days were slowly returning to me.

A bland, mundane routine.

Moments that simply flew by, too unremarkable to bother writing down in a diary.

Days likely to vanish from memory within a year... In a novel, they would have been skipped over in the narration.

That was what made it chilling.

It felt as though my time had been sucked dry.

'The Nameless Radiance Church... They're the worst, all right.'

There was a reason they were the faction I least wanted to get involved with out of the three.

'Ghost stories that blend into reality.'

I never imagined I'd run into one while cleaning. I knew the Nameless Radiance Church had people planted in Daydream Inc., but to encounter one escaping containment like this, utterly unprepared...

'I'm lucky to be alive.'

I heaved a sigh of relief. Now I just wanted to go home and get some rest—

“Oh, here... He was in the corridor.”

RATTLE

As the security chief opened the door to Containment Corridor B, an unconscious man in an orange uniform slid to the floor from the other side.

The cleaner who'd come in with me.

“... Supervisor Badger!”

Aaaaargh!

He'd been here on day three, too!

* * *

Fortunately, Supervisor Park Minseong regained consciousness shortly after we moved him to the break room.

“... Huh? What? What... Someone shoved me—”

“There was a containment breach.”

“What?!”

I explained everything I'd experienced.

Throughout the explanation, the security chief only nodded occasionally when prompted. He seemed to have absolutely no desire to question how I'd already known about the Nameless Radiance Church, either.

He just... seemed not to want to work...

'... Understandable, with a lifetime position.'

I understood.

And Park Minseong's complexion changed, apparently having understood my explanation too.

“You're right. I don't really remember what you did on the first two days, Roe Deer... All I have is, we finished cleaning without any trouble.”

“...”

“That cult is scary.”

“Tell me about it.”

The Nameless Radiance Church's Mimic had stolen and absorbed even the incidents it had caused itself.

Leaving everything quiet and ordinary, as though nothing had happened.

'And that's rank four.'

A form of reality manipulation.

Granted, that put it somewhere between B- and C-grade by Daydream Inc.'s standards, so it wasn't exactly low-tier.

The problem was that the Nameless Radiance Church had countless fanatics granted ghost stories of rank four or higher as their “powers”...

Remembering the Mimic from earlier, which had barely qualified as human, I swallowed.

Please, let me not get involved with them again until I've saved up enough points for a Wish Coupon.

“Um... The cleaning's done, so you should go get changed too...”

“Oh. Right. Roe Deer, I'll hurry and change. Just a minute!”

“Of course.”

I saw Park Minseong out of the room.

Beside me, the security chief was sweeping a piece of paper Park Minseong had dropped into the trash.

That strange note of work tips.

“...”

“About this note...”

Conveniently, the security chief brought it up first.

“I was going to ask because it seemed so suspicious. Were those really tips circulating within the security team?”

“Yes... They were. But... Nobody would ever have given them to him.”

“... Pardon?”

“Supervisor Badger...”

The security chief murmured, looking toward the spot where Park Minseong had left the room.

“He was fully contaminated by 'Hungry Hangman'... So he can't come into contact with any kind of work-rules document... Because he was contaminated by a similar Darkness...”

“...!!”

Wait, right!

'Park Minseong was contaminated by the kindergarten teaching manual. Something written in a similar format could definitely be dangerous.'

My stomach churned. I'd experienced the same contamination myself, if to a different degree.

It was perfectly natural to keep him away from anything that reminded him of it.

But that wasn't all the security chief had to say.

The truth was... more chilling.

“Supervisor Badger can contaminate a rulebook just by reading it...”

“...”

What?

“If he realized, he'd become too conscious of it... and that could accelerate the contamination. So he probably still doesn't know...”

Then...

“... Are you saying someone deliberately gave him a note he wasn't allowed to have? So I'd read work tips contaminated by Supervisor Park Minseong?”

The security chief gave a slow nod.

“Aha, a trap! A classic.”

My first response was equally classic and reliable.

“... Can we check the CCTV footage?”

“There aren't any cameras in Security's residential area... Too much chance of recording something bad...”

“... They took advantage of there being no cameras.”

“Yes, probably...”

Who the hell was it?

This had been aimed squarely at Park Minseong's shift. The Mimic hadn't escaped through some combination of coincidence and bad luck.

'Did another Nameless Radiance Church member in the company help it?'

But this didn't seem like a viable way to get the church member out of containment... It would only cause a disturbance.

'Then if escape wasn't the goal...'

What if the target was the cleaner on duty that day?

'What if the goal was to f* me over?'

“... Jay.”

“Yes...?”

“Is it possible for research team employees to know a lot about Security's basement area?”

“Hmm... Depending on the team...?”

The security chief narrowed his eyes.

“Is there... someone on the research team... you suspect?”

“... Somewhat.”

“Who...?”

“...”

I hesitated briefly.

But the security chief was responsible for this area's security tonight. He did have a right to hear it.

'And he could serve as a witness to the situation.'

All right. I deliberately volunteered it readily.

“Section Chief Kwak Jegang.”

“...”

“The reason I received this disciplinary assignment in the first place is that I chose not to do what he told me. ... He ordered me to leave a fellow recruit from a Cleanup Team somewhere he'd die, so I ignored him.”

“...”

“Of course, rather than suspecting him personally, I'm just speculating based on the circumstan—”

“Got it.”

“...??”

“One moment...”

BEEP BEEP BEEP

The security chief went over to the landline at one side of the break room and picked up the receiver.

After a moment of apparently searching his memory, he firmly pressed the buttons.

A brief ringing tone... then a click.

[“Yes, yes, Kwak Jegang speaking!”]

“...!!”

I gaped at the security chief, who'd called a section chief from another team directly at this ungodly hour.

His own expression hadn't changed at all.

“Hello... This is Chief J3 of Security Team 3.”

[“... J3? ... Wait, who have we here?? Team B's leader... Whoops, you're not on an Elite Team anymore, are you? Haha, my mistake! You're not even on the Field Exploration Team now!”]

“...”

[“Anyway, it's been ages! I heard you're a chief on the security team too. Wow, capable employees really are something else! Must be a shame you can't enter Darkness.”]

'Is he trying to get under his skin?'

No, there was no question about it. He was practically scraping it raw...

[“Anyway, what prompted this sudden call? Are you on duty tonight? That's a phone in Security's area, isn't it?”]

[“Has something happened? Oh, if you're calling because you desperately want to enter Darkness, I'm afraid I can't help. Haha!”]

I watched the security chief tensely.

“Hey.”

[“Hmm?”]

“You know... I may not be able to enter Darkness... but I can kill people.”

[“...!”]

“Just... saying.”

Then he hung up.

“...”

Wow.

“Is it... all right for you to do that?”

“Yes... Well.”

The security chief shrugged.

“But it probably... won't do much... The higher-ranking research team people are... hmm.”

The head of security chose his words.

“Insane...”

“...”

Apparently he hadn't chosen very carefully.

I barely managed a reply.

“In any case, judging from his reaction, um, I've realized my suspicions are reasonable...”

Considering how he'd subtly asked whether anything had happened during tonight's shift in Security's area, I couldn't help thinking Kwak Jegang was involved.

'I thought my Gen-Z attitude had put him off enough to lose interest.'

Apparently it wasn't that simple.

'This is driving me crazy...'

... I'd have to come up with countermeasures again.

In any case, I nodded to him.

“Thank you, Jay.”

“Mm, then... next time too...”

Aha.

“I'll visit again with some snacks. Doughnuts, perhaps.”

“Yes.”

Surprisingly easy to figure out how to bribe him.

“Anyway... Be careful... There's no telling what he'll do...”

“...”

After a little deliberation, I asked.

“Would it be all right to ask whether you've also had a bad experience due to a conflict with the research team?”

“...”

The security chief averted his eyes.

“It's not... a very interesting story.”

A short silence.

“I went into a strange fairy tale... And came out much... much later.”

He said no more.

“...”

'A fairy-tale ghost story where the research team caused trouble.'

That sentence alone had actually tipped me off.

As to exactly which Darkness had contaminated the security chief.

And it naturally brought to mind a Named character from an Elite Team.

Along with the harrowing Exploration Record of how that character... had ended up on the security team.

For the audio recordings of the employee who went missing during research into Qterw-A-37, see the document “And They All Lived Unhappily Ever After.”

'I could pretend not to know and ask more...'

That would let me confirm another Named character's identity.

“...”

But I simply kept quiet too.

I decided to respect the security chief's silence.

A short while later, when Park Minseong returned after changing, the security chief told him this.

“Anyway, you got through the three days of cleaning... safely... So, um, now... I think you should more or less... be able to work for Security...”

It was an official declaration of Park Minseong's first stage of recovery.

“...! Really?!”

“Yes... And I think... you can go outside too.”

“Gasp.”

“Only after sunset, though...”

Hmm.

“Then could he go today? The sun is down now, too.”

“R-Roe Deer? I'm fine. I can go another day...”

“One moment...”

The security chief submitted a report somewhere using an old computer, then announced,

“Go today...”

“Oh my!”

“From now on... You should be able to go out once a week...”

“Oh my God!!”

Color returned to Park Minseong's slightly haggard face, and a smile spread across it.

It was the expression I'd seen back when he was on Team D.

“...”

“You just need to return before sunrise... Um...”

“What happens if he can't make it back?”

“You'd have to request... a rescue service from the company...”

“...”

“Don't do that... Unless you want... a lifetime position.”

Park Minseong bowed his head deeply.

“Yes. I'll be sure to be on time. Thank you.”

“Don't mention it...”

The security chief scratched his cheek.

A short while later, I climbed the stairs with Park Minseong, who had gotten ready to go out in record time.

“See you...”

The security chief raised a hand slightly to see us off as we left the basement.

* * *

“Wow! It feels so good to walk outside!”

Park Minseong lifted both arms, beaming.

It was past three in the morning, so there weren't many people, but this was Seoul: lights still twinkled here and there, and people were out on the streets.

“I mean, it really feels like ages since I've had some fresh air... And seen the stars!”

He wore a face mask and had his cap pulled low, as though trying to hide as much of his face as possible.

Conservatively speaking, he had three hours until dawn to spend outside.

'At least it's winter.'

“Will you be going home, sir?”

“Oh, um... I was going to visit the hospital.”

“...”

“A family member's hospitalized. They'll probably be asleep... but I thought I'd at least see their face.”

He scratched his cheek, looking a little sheepish.

“Um, actually, I'm collecting points because of my family...”

Damn it.

“May I ask which family member?”

“Oh, my younger sibling. Such a kind kid! And a genius, you know? A violin prodigy!”

He then enthusiastically explained what a kind, wonderful child his younger sibling had been, how much they loved the violin, and how well they played.

But he didn't say a word about their current condition.

“...”

“Anyway... That's why I really need points for my sibling. So I'd rather not leave the company if I can help it...”

“Then will you return to the Field Exploration Team?”

“... Hmm. I think that might take too long.”

For some reason, he trailed off, then added in a brighter voice,

“Oh, apparently Security has a department that gives you a lot of points, surprisingly. More than the Field Exploration Team, even!”

“...!”

... Oh.

That place.

“... Wouldn't there be a reason they give you so many?”

“Hmm. True... But...”

Park Minseong murmured,

“Sometimes I think you have to take risks to make your wish come true...”

“...”

“Oh, we're at your company apartment, Roe Deer!”

He patted my back.

“Go on in. I can get a taxi here. Don't worry about me, Roe Deer. You've really been through a lot!”

Then he spoke softly, lowering his voice.

“Listen, you don't have to worry too much about me... Honestly, I knew what I was getting into when I took the job. This is better than I'd expected... It's thanks to you, Roe Deer. Thank you.”

“...”

In the end, I smiled faintly and shook his hand.

“I'll support you wherever you work, but if possible, I'd still like another chance to work together.”

“... Yeah. That would be nice.”

We said our goodbyes, and Park Minseong took a taxi to the hospital.

“Whew...”

Sighing, I entered the company apartment building.

Unless I was imagining things, there'd been a strange hint of madness about Park Minseong as he talked about wishes...

“He was an ordinary fellow, but he's finally developed a somewhat interesting personality.”

Let's not say terrifying things like that, Braun...

'Anyway, I can finally sleep...'

Having the last day of the year off wasn't bad, but I hadn't expected to spend it doing nothing but sleeping.

Entering the dark apartment in the predawn hours, I felt a chill and kept my phone's flashlight on, warm and bright, as I headed to my room.

Then I went straight to sleep.

'Countermeasures against Kwak Jegang... I'll think about those with a clear head when I wake up... Please, let's just rest.'

My overworked body, exhausted by the night's nerve-racking physical and mental labor, gratefully accepted sleep.

It had been a very long time since I'd fallen asleep without first watching children's cartoons or comedy.

I fully savored that deep, sweet, dreamless slumber.

And just as I woke, refreshed yet drowsy, feeling as though I'd merely closed my eyes and opened them again...

“Oh. You're awake.”

“...!”

I sat bolt upright.

“An unannounced guest has arrived, Mr. Roe Deer.”

Someone stood by the pale-lit window.

A tired face, casual clothes, hair tied tightly back, and...

An empty space where her left hand should have been.

“It's been a while, Roe Deer. ... Heard you were cleaning with Minseong.”

The real Deputy Eun Haje.