Chapter 14: An Exciting Tea Time with Manager Batori (2)

Hot.

No, cold.

No, more than that, unfamiliar.

Along with that viscous sensation, beyond my eardrum.

In other words, I had arrived somewhere I should never have reached.

“Mmph, khgh!”

I couldn’t open my mouth.

My tongue curled inward, and my lower jaw was paralyzed.

My body had completely lost control and was moving against all my commands.

Craaack—

Squelch— Sliiide—

The tentacle wasn’t merely touching my nerves.

It was licking, scratching, and rubbing somewhere inside my head.

My mental diary was being flipped through page by page.

With fingers.

No.

With tentacles.

One page.

And another.

The sensation of pages being torn apart.

The sensation of something crawling over old wounds as if licking them.

Memories were being pushed, compressed, crumpled, stuck together, and mixed with one another.

One scene.

I was a high school student.

I had just received my school lunch milk and stepped into the hallway, but the entire corridor was covered in a red, viscous substance.

The eye of a student from another class rolled to a stop at my feet.

I tried to scream.

But the classroom was full of Assistant Manager Son’s heads.

As I cried while clinging to the teacher’s desk, I had become one of Manager Myeon’s faces.

‘No… that didn’t happen…’

The next scene.

I was in a job interview.

Manager Batori sat in front of a grand piano, playing my résumé.

As she pressed piano keys made of human fingers, she smiled, opened my lips, and pulled my résumé out from inside my mouth.

“You’re truly adorable, Mr. Jeong Haeil. You still wish to receive something in return for what you’ve given.”

“Thank you.”

Someone who wasn’t me replied.

Where did the memory end?

Where did the dream begin?

And where did she begin?

“Kh… ngh… aaagh—!”

My brain was melting.

It was real.

It felt like it was boiling.

Hot.

Sticky.

Slippery.

Painful.

Burning.

Terrifying.

Terrifying.

Terrifying.

The center of the world turned red.

Memories and dreams began to mix together like used oil, thick and contaminated.

“Ha… agh…!”

My heart pounded violently.

My body was still immobilized by her.

Something fell from the depths of my mind.

Plop—

A memory.

A fragment that had been extremely precious to me.

I was absolutely certain it had just been devoured.

And at that moment.

Manager Batori’s voice echoed softly.

“That’s right. That is fear. It’s also the most delicious layer of you.”

Smack!

With a sudden pain, the tentacle that had been stirring through my brain was violently torn out.

I heard something leave my ear with a wet sound.

“Kugh… haaah!!”

Air exploded into my lungs.

As oxygen rushed back in, I gasped as if I had just been born.

Blood and something even more viscous began to trickle out from inside my ear.

With my head tilted, I brought a trembling hand to it.

It was wet.

Blood.

It was definitely blood.

And something else.

Something strange.

A thick substance, warm and faintly pulsing.

Pus?

Mucus?

Brain matter?

“Ha… haa…!”

Breathing heavily, I barely managed to remain seated in the chair.

My chest rose and fell violently.

My heart was beating out of control.

It felt as though something was still writhing inside my ear.

As if that intruder were still wandering among my memories.

“This…”

I heard Manager Batori’s voice.

Her breathing sounded slightly excited.

Ecstasy.

Satisfaction.

And above all, the tone of someone completely satiated.

I raised my head to look at her.

She slowly lifted a hand.

A tentacle.

The same tentacle that had been exploring my mind only moments ago.

At its tip remained traces of an unknown liquid.

Red.

White.

Cloudy.

Semi-transparent.

A viscous substance impossible to identify, as if blood and memories had been mixed together.

“What a marvelous delicacy.”

She lightly moistened the tips of her fingers with that substance.

Then she brought them to her lips.

And slowly licked them.

As if savoring an expensive dessert.

Every one of her movements was grotesquely elegant.

Sluuurp—

A strange sigh escaped her pale lips.

“Executive Director Gu will love it as well. After all, this is the first time you’ve shown your sincerity.”

Executive Director Gu.

I didn’t know who that was.

But the title of executive director alone sounded dangerous.

Although right now, that wasn’t what mattered.

‘What… did she see?’

What had she touched inside my head?

The disturbed memories began to surface.

Fragments of glass that were too vivid, and therefore all the more horrifying.

‘……’

A sharp sensation climbed from my chest to the crown of my head.

Memories I had shattered into pieces and scattered until they became invisible.

I had told myself countless times that they were merely the pathetic excuses of a pessimist.

But there had been certain nights.

And certain mornings afterward.

That had clearly ruined my life.

Changed it.

And made it impossible to recover.

I gripped the arms of the chair in anger.

My hands tensed.

My knuckles turned white.

Manager Batori watched me silently.

A tiny smile rested on her lips.

A smile that seemed to say.

‘It’s already too late.’

I took a deep breath and settled back into the chair.

My heart was still hammering.

But the tentacle was gone.

Her abdomen had completely closed as well.

Without leaving behind even a trace of blood.

Manager Batori picked up her tumbler again.

And this time, very slowly.

As if she were genuinely enjoying a pleasant tea time.

She began humming a melody.

“La, lalah~ Lu, lulu~”

The tune she hummed spread across the silent floor like ripples.

This time, I managed to endure only because of a strange sense of indignation.

I leaned slightly forward and placed both hands neatly on my knees.

Like a student sitting in the front row of a classroom, maintaining proper posture while protesting a punishment from the teacher.

“Do you feel better now?”

“Fufu, my mood is always excellent. However…”

She rotated the blood-filled tumbler while smiling.

Beneath her shining silver hair, her blood-colored eyes softened gently.

“After tasting such a delicacy, I always feel like having a conversation.”

“I see.”

That was all I replied.

The conversation was entirely under her control.

“Fufu. Consider it a reward for showing me such a delicious memory. In this place, hiding everything is not always the best option. Well then, what else should we talk about?”

“…What else do you wish to tell me?”

She lightly tapped the rim of the tumbler with her little finger and answered slowly.

“Cause and effect. What do you think of our company? It is a place where someone who wishes to become complete and special can achieve what they desire.”

Her eyes still shone with that strange amusement, but her tone was surprisingly serious.

Without waiting for my response, she lightly licked her lips and continued.

“Very well. Then I shall tell you about the company to which you belong. After hearing it, I’m sure you’ll feel motivated.”

Manager Batori began drawing something in the air with a finger.

In the empty space, droplets of blood emerged from her fingertips and slowly formed a red organizational chart.

“First of all, this company is not merely an organization that produces and sells things. Rather, it is a place that causes what is desired to come into existence.”

Come into existence?

I slightly raised my gaze at those words.

Manager Batori did not miss my reaction.

“The products of this place are not created simply by giving them form. They are meaning, will, and also language.”

“Language?”

“Fufu, I’ve gotten ahead of myself. Let me explain it in a simpler way.”

She lightly moved a finger.

“Mr. Jeong Haeil, you work in the company’s Production Division. The Extraction Team, the Refinement Team, and the Fusion Team all belong to this division. Executive Director Gu, whom I mentioned earlier, is the director of the entire division.”

“Yes, I understand.”

“And the beginning of the Production Division is extraction.”

Crack!

Along with her words, I thought I heard the sound of bones breaking somewhere.

“You’re already getting used to dimensional beings, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I see them practically every day.”

“Then it will be easy to understand. The mission of the Extraction Team is to extract higher-order concepts, energies, and other elements that do not exist in this world from those entities.”

Manager Batori’s red eyes curved like crescent moons.

“Team 2 handles internal work within the Extraction Chambers. Team 3 performs field operations in dimensional distortion zones. However, our Extraction Team 1 is an exception. We are the elite among elites, capable of handling any situation. You may take pride in belonging here, for you are part of my lineage.”

“This is the first time I’ve heard about the company’s structure like this. Why only now…?”

“Because those who didn’t need to know were not told.”

She smiled mockingly.

For a moment, I felt like protesting, but I didn’t dare ask anything.

“What is extracted cannot be used as it is.”

“…Why?”

“Because it is unstable. There are those who suffer bodily explosions, mental collapse, or temporal distortions simply by touching it.”

She smiled sweetly before continuing.

“That is why the next step belongs to the Refinement Division.”

I nodded.

It was a sequence I had heard my superiors mention in the office.

“Refinement Team 1 works with energy originating from Rank A dimensional entities. A rank is only a rank, but considering the residual consciousness and malicious structures of those entities, Team 1’s work can be described as a process that burns both mind and body.”

“Then what do Teams 2 and 3 do?”

“They are somewhat less destructive. Though even there, if they make mistakes, some have lost count of how many limbs were amputated or how many eyes exploded.”

I bit my lip.

The Refinement Division was far more dangerous than I had imagined.

“And after that comes the Fusion Division. They are the ones who take refined energy and fuse it to create final products. They reconstruct refined energy into the desired form.”

“It sounds like they’re manipulating reality.”

“Exactly. And it is also related to what you desire.”

Manager Batori narrowed her eyes.

“The forms they create are not simple objects. Capsules of consciousness capable of erasing time. Bottles that seal emotions. Boxes that contain entire worlds. And things far more horrifying than those.”

She exhaled slowly.

Her explanation was clear and serious.

But I could tell.

She was enjoying every second of it.

“The three divisions I have mentioned. Extraction, Refinement, and Fusion. Those three make up the Production Division and also the very heart of the company.”

Manager Batori let out a soft laugh.

“And among all of them, Extraction Team 1 is the most exceptional. Consider it an honor to be part of my lineage.”

As I nodded mechanically, I gathered the courage to ask the question that had continued to linger in my mind.

Why weren’t they killing me?

What made me different from the people in the Emotions Department?

If fulfilling desires through the company’s products was truly so important, then this was a matter of survival.

“…Manager Batori.”

“Hmm?”

At my words, she gently set her tumbler down on the table.

The red liquid swirled softly.

Her gaze slowly turned toward me.

The sensation of the tentacle that had penetrated my ear still lingered at the back of my neck.

“That day, people in suits appeared… I mean, normal people.”

“Ah, that incident.”

“Were they employees too?”

At my question, Manager Batori slightly raised the corners of her lips and nodded.

For a moment, something flashed in her eyes.

The fangs visible beneath her smile made that glimmer even more unsettling.

“That is correct. They belonged to the Emotions Department.”

The Emotions Department.

The only department I had known until now solely through records.

“Is it a department made up of… humans like me?”

“That’s right. It consists exclusively of humans.”

“And why only humans?”

“Because they are necessary.”

Her answer was firm.

Elegant, yet solid as a steel cup.

“None of us possess human emotions. In fact, not possessing them is more efficient. However, there are times when emotions are necessary. Certain products cannot be completed without human emotions.”

She lightly tapped the surface of the table with her fingers.

The sound reminded me of a pulse.

So I remained silent.

“Someone’s profound anger. Desperate fear. A loss carved into the bones. Blind love. Those emotions become the seals that determine the final form of energy.”

“Then the human employees…”

“They are usually tools for stamping those seals.”

Seals.

Tools.

That was how this company referred to people.

“You could consider them emotional injectors. Fear, hatred, compassion, despair. To load those emotions into a product, high-quality human emotions are required.”

Her tone was so calm that it became even more chilling.

I watched her silently.

“The humans in the Emotions Department… die doing that.”

“That is correct. Afterward, they are processed. Sometimes they become materials for the Fusion Division. Other times they become part of additional tasks for the Refinement Division.”

She rested her chin on the back of one hand.

Through her slender fingers and white nails, the faint reddish pattern of her veins could be seen.

“That is why the Emotions Department does not last long, either physically or mentally. Usually two weeks. One month at most.”

I was speechless.

There was a high probability that the employee whose head had been crushed by Assistant Manager Son had joined only two weeks earlier.

And I had joined at practically the same time.

“Do the people in the Emotions Department know they’re going to die?”

“Yes. Even if they are not given a formal explanation, most of them eventually realize it. But humans are a species that harbors hope. So they foolishly believe they will be the exception.”

Instinctively, I understood those words were directed at me as well.

“Then did those people press the release button because they were desperate as their end approached?”

“Fufu, we do not know that. There were only reports indicating that the humans in the Emotions Department were becoming increasingly unstable.”

Her red eyes seemed capable of foreseeing the future.

If the limit for the Emotions Department was two weeks, how long could I endure?

How many more weeks would I live because I belonged to the Extraction Team?

Seeing the hope slowly disappear from my face, Manager Batori paused briefly before continuing.

“Of course, you are special, just as you wished to be. Furthermore, there have been exceptionally capable humans who survived long enough to be recognized by other departments. Some even received company products or managed to resign. You should not lose hope so quickly.”

My heart stopped for an instant.

‘What?’

Something that had remained buried inside me began to awaken.

Unknown images crossed my mind.

Someone I had never seen.

Someone who survived this hellish company and all its monstrous rules.

Someone who endured silently among the gray hallways of the Emotions Department, the red-lit Extraction Chambers, and the damp workshops of the Fusion Division.

‘If someone like that really exists…’

How had they survived?

How had they made it through all those screams and continued to exist?

A single sentence carried me much farther than I expected.

An idea I had never considered began to grow within me.

‘What if I could do it too?’

The moment that thought appeared, I realized how desperately I wanted it.

The desire to live.

The miraculous hope that perhaps I could survive.

I slowly raised my head.

Manager Batori was still watching me with a smile.

The gleam in her eyes was still that of a predator.

But behind it, there seemed to be a strange amusement, as if she were testing me.

“Did someone like that… really exist?”

My voice sounded rough.

It trembled like old paper crumpling.

Manager Batori tilted her head slightly and replied with elegant, old-fashioned diction.

“If there is something you wish to believe in, then you may do so.”

She smiled calmly.

That smile seemed as warm as velvet stained with ancient blood, yet gave the impression it would become as cold as ice the moment you touched it.

I did not respond.

But hope had already taken root within me.