Chapter 10: I Was Getting Used to It

Several days passed.

Every time I completed an extraction, money was deposited into my account under the category of bonuses, and notifications about welfare points kept arriving.

Since I had only been working here for a few days, I was afraid I would get physically crushed if I started asking about the company’s benefits, so I never asked where I was supposed to use them.

Even so, I had now become the kind of person who automatically lowered his voice when opening the door in the morning, who could endure seven faces turning toward him at the same time without trembling, and who gratefully accepted coffee offered by a superior whose head was a fist.

For some reason, I had vaguely begun to feel that these people(?) would at least not tear me apart without a reason.

Every morning, I walked through the corridors dragging chains alongside Supervisor Shik, facing dozens of eyes in front of the steel containment cells.

Sometimes they were literally staring contests.

There were dimensional entities that would not react unless one looked directly into the slimy gaze they emitted.

Either way, at that moment I was standing in front of Containment Cell D-11.

After all, my job was to perform extractions from D-grade dimensional entities.

The entity’s name was “Silent Swan.”

The target was an incorporeal dimensional entity without a clearly defined form that periodically emitted cold from inside its cell.

If it was given a signal through a specific sequence of knocks within the allotted time, energy would be extracted through a resonance phenomenon.

“Tap. Tap. Tap……”

I had memorized the rhythm.

It was the fourth time I had performed this procedure.

Its form consisted of white dots floating silently in the air, although from time to time the faint silhouette of a smile suspended in the void would appear.

Whenever I saw it, a cold sweat inevitably ran down my back.

Even so, I no longer vomited.

The nausea still occasionally rose to my throat, but now I managed to force it back down.

The most useful skill I had learned at this company was how to control my own guts.

“You’re doing very well, Mr. Haeil.”

“Mr. Haeil is the future of our team.”

Lately, Assistant Manager Son said things like that every time he saw me.

They were not unpleasant comments, but since the praise was not exactly coming from a normal head, I still felt a certain distance.

Supervisor Shik had also become somewhat friendlier, growling in a calmer tone while giving me friendly pats on the back.

Although some of those pats still made my spine vibrate.

‘I’ve gotten used to it. Almost… how should I put it?’

I began the second knocking sequence while thinking.

‘It’s like hell. But I guess I’ve adapted.’

That was when it happened.

[Beeeeeeeep——————! Beep! Beeeeeep!]

A strange, sticky metallic siren echoed throughout the extraction room.

Honestly, I would have preferred it if it simply meant there was a fire.

But it was neither fire nor water.

It was the first time I had heard it personally, but I clearly remembered Assistant Manager Son talking about it.

— If the siren goes off in the extraction room, it means something has opened. Haeil, you’re a good runner, right? Then run with everything you’ve got.

It was not a vibration.

It was cold striking my bones.

It was not heard with the ears.

It was an alarm that climbed directly up my spine.

The ceiling of the extraction room began to tremble slightly, and the red emergency lights at the end of the corridor started spinning and flashing.

Instinctively, I turned around.

Supervisor Shik was there.

Silent.

Completely motionless.

Looking in only one direction.

I followed his gaze.

It was a direction I had never entered except during the guided tour.

Beyond those steel doors lay the C and B extraction zones, along with even more dangerous areas.

‘What the hell is happening all of a sudden…?’

I had barely gotten used to Zone D.

I looked at the tablet I was holding in my hands.

The screen was off, and my reflection showed an expression I did not recognize.

That expression seemed to say:

It’s still far too early to get used to this place.

The siren sounded again.

This time closer, echoing as if it were right beside my ear.

[Special Dimensional Entity containment released. Opening all containment cells. All personnel must immediately initiate the suppression protocol.]

“What the hell does that mean?!”

Instinctively, I stumbled backward and pressed myself against the wall of a containment cell.

I had heard it clearly.

All containment zones opened.

All.

The.

Cells.

Opened.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

A gigantic shadow passed behind me.

I turned my head toward the source of the sound.

It was Supervisor Shik.

His chains traced long arcs through the air.

That beast-like superior charged forward at full speed without the slightest hesitation.

The steel doors opened automatically, and the red emergency lights blazed like fire before his eyes.

With his mane and chains whipping behind him, Supervisor Shik disappeared inside.

I watched the scene and took a deep breath.

‘I need to get to the office.’

If I stayed here, I would die.

I started moving down the corridor toward the extraction room exit.

The exit was close.

My pace quickened until it was practically a run.

And then—

“Aaaaaaaaahh!!!”

A scream echoed through the corridor.

And at exactly the same time—

Crunch!

The sound of twisting metal echoed in front of me.

I stopped on reflex.

There was something standing in the middle of the corridor.

Something with a human shape.

No, it would be more accurate to say it was something human-like.

It was wearing a grease-stained suit.

But black spirals grew from both shoulders, twisting and stretching through the air.

Its face was blank.

More precisely, it had nothing on its face.

No eyes, no nose, no mouth.

Only a smooth surface of flesh, like a white mask, covered the place where its face should have been.

“What is… that?”

It slowly tilted its head.

Then it took a step toward me, accompanied by a humming sound that vibrated beside my ears.

Strange ripples traveled across the white skin covering its face.

The flesh stirred.

For an instant, wrinkles identical to those on my own face appeared before vanishing.

As if it were warming up to imitate me.

I forced myself to remember the dimensional entities described in the manuals.

[Containment Cell C-2]

Dimensional Entity Name: Nameless One

Dimensional Entity Code: C-2

Type: Biological / Composite (after synchronization)

Precautions: Prohibited from making direct eye contact / Possible personality collapse upon direct confrontation / Manifestation of aftereffects / Requires elimination of assimilation substances

Fragments of the manual I had memorized in order to survive surfaced in my mind.

Only then did I realize that the tablet I was holding was broken.

Nameless One.

An existence that creates cracks in the identity of whoever confronts it and then takes over their body.

The problem was that right now I was looking directly at its face.

If I looked away, I would suffer a mental collapse.

If I kept looking at it, my personality would be eroded.

“Then what the hell am I supposed to do?!”

Nameless One took another step toward me.

A mouth opened on that mouthless face.

The skin split vertically from the center, and a black hole began to pulse.

And then my own voice came out of it and pierced the space between my eyebrows.

“This isn’t a place for you.”

Boom.

My heart thundered.

“You should keep running away. You know this is wrong, don’t you?”

Boom.

My brain thundered.

“You already felt it. You and this place don’t fit together at all.”

Boom.

“There has to be some place that’s perfect for you. Some place where you truly belong.”

My lungs thundered.

Those were all my own thoughts.

The deepest and most fragile remnants of my desires.

The cracks in my identity were beginning to leak outward.

‘No. I… don’t…’

Didn’t you think that?

Something warm and hazy began to rise inside me.

The terrified expression of my own face appeared on the creature’s face.

Rational judgment?

The manual?

Isn’t this place filled with nothing but accidental deaths and inevitable deaths?

It’s all complete bullshit.

Everything is being torn apart.

It has always been like this.

The only thing anyone can do is fight desperately.

The moment I reached that conclusion, I ran toward the wall.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang! Bang!

I slammed my head against it with all my strength again and again.

Pain shot through my nervous system, and my consciousness snapped back into place.

The words from my university textbooks turned into sharp fragments inside my mind and began tearing apart Nameless One’s voice.

I took the sensation of my forehead being split open and turned it into words.

“DON’T TALK NONSENSE!!!”

My shout echoed throughout the entire corridor.

“DON’T FIT IN?! ME?! HERE?! GO TO HELL!!”

Crack.

It felt as if my skull were being torn apart and my brain stirred around.

Nameless One shuddered.

Its torn face froze.

And I kept shouting.

“NO!! I FIT PERFECTLY HERE!!”

With my eyes wide open and a crazed smile on my face, I advanced toward it.

Staring fixedly at that rippling face as if my eyes were about to pop out of their sockets.

I dismantled every miserable piece of my past and shoved it into the realm of objectivity.

“FROM THE VERY BEGINNING!! SINCE THE DAY I WAS BORN!! I WAS NEVER NORMAL, SO WHAT THE HELL IS A PLACE WHERE I BELONG?! I’M A DAMN ORPHAN!!”

“You’re a failure. Trash.”

“I STUDIED MYSELF TO DEATH TO GET INTO COLLEGE AND STILL DIDN’T HAVE A SINGLE DAMN CENT TO MY NAME!!”

“With just a bachelor’s degree, you won’t even be able to work as a receptionist at a counseling center. You’ll need graduate school, Haeil.”

“I RAN OFF TO THE MILITARY AND ENDED UP DISCHARGED, AND WHEN I RETURNED TO SOCIETY I WAS A MISERABLE UNEMPLOYED LOSER WITH NOTHING BUT A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA!!”

“Sergeant Jeong Haeil! It hurts! Please save me, Sergeant Jeong Haeil!”

As the creature dug up those foul memories that still clung to me like tar, I pounded my chest over and over while shouting.

Depression.

Frustration.

The feeling of defeat.

All of it had become a comfortable suit of armor wrapped around me.

“THE GUY WITH A FIST FOR A HEAD, THE SEVEN-FACED BASTARD, THE DAMN CRAZY VAMPIRE, THE CHAIN-DRAGGING BEAST!! THEY’RE ALL PERFECT!! THIS PLACE IS PERFECT FOR ME!!”

The skin on Nameless One’s face began to tremble violently.

A huge crack opened down the center.

And I kept yelling at it as if I were about to grab it by the throat.

“I AM A PERFECTLY QUALIFIED EMPLOYEE FOR THIS DAMN LIMITED COMPANY WHERE THE DEAD END UP WITH GHOSTS!!”

Boom.

Nameless One staggered backward.

At some point, a drone descended from the corridor ceiling with a whistle.

[Target stabilized. Remaining energy: 15%. Initiating automatic recovery.]

Apparently, my life had been too sticky and too full of cracks for that thing to force its way through.

Only after watching Nameless One slowly evaporate like smoke and get absorbed by the drone did I collapse to the floor.

All strength left my shoulders and legs.

My heart was still pounding frantically.

I fell heavily onto the ground.

Just as I felt around the breast pocket of my suit for the fountain pen to treat my damaged head.

I began to hear a distant cracking sound.

Was Supervisor Shik coming back?

It was the first time I had ever been so happy at the thought of him.

Smiling broadly, I turned my head.

“…Huh?”

My vision became blurry.

No.

It was collapsing.

As if someone had poured thick oil into my eyes, the world began to ripple and distort.

Light and colors blended together.

The emergency lights spilled everywhere like bluish blood.

Like wet paint beneath the rain.

The walls melted.

The floor softened.

The red lights expanded like brain matter.

“Why? What’s happening? I’m done already. Isn’t it over?”

I closed my eyes.

Opened them.

Closed them again.

Opened them once more.

But I could see even less.

I understood.

My eyes were melting.

“U-UAAAAAHHH!!”

That brief realization made my entire body boil.

I covered my eyes with both hands.

I had to cover them.

I had to block my vision.

Screeeech.

“NGH… AAAAAAHHHH——!!”

The smell of burning rubber struck my nose.

At the same time, the smell of burning flesh rose from my eyebrows, my cheeks, and the backs of my hands.

Even my hands were melting.

The skin began collapsing into itself.

The flesh underneath was slowly cooking.

It was not a hallucination.

The pain was too real.

The heat penetrated all the way to my bones.

I could not speak.

It was not my vocal cords.

It was my brain directly rejecting the pain.

I’m going to die.

I’m really going to die.

Thooooom——

Space was mercilessly crushed.

The air wrinkled.

And at the center of it all.

Something long and thin appeared.

Without making a sound.

Without moving.

Swinging elongated arms and legs while its body rippled with the plastic sheen of torn black polyethylene.

Even with my eyes melting, I looked directly at it.

Blood began flowing from my ears.

My teeth trembled one by one as if they were screaming.

That, too, was an existence capable of destroying human senses simply by being observed.

I crashed face-first onto the floor.

I could not even scream.

My tongue was melting.

At last, I understood what kind of death someone like me could suffer.

How life could grind a person’s heart into pieces and pulverize their final moments.

And it was precisely when I felt that strange clarity.

Boooom!!

The ceiling exploded.

The corridor screamed.

With the roar of steel plates being torn apart, something gigantic crashed through the ceiling and descended.

The pain vanished.

More precisely, it began cooling rapidly.

The pain in my melted hands eased.

The fire consuming my eyes transformed into cold air mixed with the fresh scent of grass.

I raised my head through my blurred vision.

And I saw it.

That dimensional entity that had appeared beyond Nameless One.

That distorted nightmare.

Now it was crushed beneath enormous tree roots.

Dense roots.

Rough.

Delicate.

Gigantic.

They looked as though they had pierced through the earth and buildings to emerge on the surface.

They tore through the dimensional entity’s flesh, crushing its heart while shattering its shell.

A shriek resembling a monstrous melody filled the space.

The roots writhed like living beings.

And at the end of those roots.

Beyond that trunk covered in vines and knots.

I saw someone.

At least, the upper half of his body was human in shape.

He wore a suit.

The collar of his black shirt was immaculate.

The sleeves had golden buttons.

Polished shoes.

A perfectly arranged green tie.

And skin of solid, unbreakable bark.

A waterfall of bluish-green leaves cascaded down to his waist as though it were hair.

Branches of various sizes grew from the openings in his suit across his chest, shoulders, wrists, and neck.

Moist green eyes were embedded among the knots crossing his face.

All of those eyes blinked at the same time as they observed me.

Trembling from head to toe, I held that gaze.

My vision was still blurred.

My tongue dry.

My skin drenched in cold sweat.

Even so.

He tilted his head.

His movement was unbelievably calm.

Unbelievably natural.

He lowered one arm like a branch.

And brought the other hand to his chest, slowly moving his long fingers.

“I have heard your admirable determination.”

His voice was low and damp.

As if something were whispering among ancient trees in the middle of the night.

It did not sound like language.

It sounded like the resonance produced by centuries of growth rings slowly splitting apart.

He raised his head again.

His wooden eyes pierced deeply into me.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Employee Jeong Haeil.”

There was no need for him to say it.

I knew immediately.

Director Mok, whom I had heard so much about.

Was this monster.