Chapter 29: The Control Team of the Department of Anomalous Disaster Management (1)

We turned several times after passing corridor corners, and at some point, the footsteps, breathing, and echoes could no longer be heard.

The ponytailed woman, who had remained tense the entire time, stopped, and the man with heterochromatic eyes who had been walking half a step ahead of her silently raised a hand.

I stopped on reflex.

I pressed my back against the wall and held my breath.

‘It’s gone.’

The presence.

It really was gone now.

It had stopped following us.

“…Haa.”

I felt the air escape from my body.

Only then did it seem as though my lungs returned to their normal size.

I never imagined I would be so grateful simply to be able to breathe.

‘Now it’s time to deal with another problem.’

What took the place of that vanished presence was the sharp hostility of the people who had tried to kill me just moments ago.

It had been a long time since I had seen people.

Since Lee Jihyun, who spoke with me briefly in front of Human Resources and then resigned.

Since the employees of the Emotional Department who ended up getting crushed by Assistant Manager Son after causing a massive disaster by pressing the release button in the Extraction Room.

Since Director Go Gyeol, who seemed to have stopped being human a long time ago.

Relatively normal people.

And, since they did not belong to our company, they were the first ones I had met.

‘This isn’t exactly a pleasant situation to be happy about.’

Though, apparently, my fellow humans did not consider me human.

The ponytailed woman was still watching me.

The corners of her lips were completely lowered, and her sharp eyes seemed capable of drawing lines with a blade.

She was smaller than I was, but beneath her fitted suit, firm muscles could be discerned.

And above all, there was the pistol holster at her waist.

The sound coming from that holster as it swayed with the proper weight was undoubtedly real.

The heterochromatic-eyed Team Leader remained silent.

The fierce expression he had shown earlier was gone, leaving only silence and a blank face behind.

However, his gray and brown eyes remained fixed on me.

An uncomfortable silence stretched on for several seconds.

Finally, he silently shook his head, ran his fingers through his gray hair, and opened his mouth.

“Yeom Hwi. Team Leader of the Control Team of the Department of Anomalous Disaster Management.”

‘What a peculiar name.’

After such a brief introduction, the man gestured toward the woman beside him with his chin.

The ponytailed woman was still staring at me with her hand resting on her pistol holster.

It was incredible that someone could give such a murderous look to a complete stranger.

Seeing her like that, Yeom Hwi gave her a light but precise smack on the back of the head.

Thud!

“…”

The woman’s expression twisted.

Her eyebrows furrowed, and the corner of her mouth twitched.

Slowly, the look she had been directing at me turned toward Yeom Hwi.

“What?”

he asked with complete indifference.

The woman let out a short sigh, placed a hand on her forehead, and after a brief delay, spoke.

“…I’m Seo Ryu, Sub-Team Leader of the Control Team of the Department of Anomalous Disaster Management.”

Her husky, androgynous voice echoed heavily through the damp corridor.

The two of them watched me in silence.

I nibbled on my lips for a moment before cautiously replying.

“…My name is Jeong Haeil.”

The words left my lips.

But neither of their gazes changed.

Caution.

Distrust.

And a hostility that could not be erased.

‘…Damn it.’

I swallowed and slowly continued.

“As you said, I’m an employee of Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts.”

The moment I finished speaking, the air froze once more.

“…You.”

Yeom Hwi’s voice had changed.

Until then, it had been dry and cold.

Now it wasn’t.

His tone had an edge.

The muscles in his shoulders tensed, and something broke inside his eyes.

His heterochromatic gaze pierced straight through me.

“What exactly are you?”

Clack.

Something familiar sounded beside me.

And something I should never have heard at that moment.

The sound of a slide locking back struck my eardrums.

Seo Ryu had drawn the pistol from her waist without the slightest hesitation and was pointing it directly at my head.

The heat radiating from the weapon.

The cold metallic sensation pressing against my skin.

The weight of the steel.

Instinctively, I understood it was neither a toy nor a replica.

I felt the sweat on my back turn cold.

If I made a mistake, even while clearing my throat, they might blow a hole through this head that only knew how to memorize manuals.

“W-wait a moment… what does this mean…?”

Before I could finish the sentence, there was another movement in front of me.

Clack.

Yeom Hwi slowly raised a hand.

He pulled back the lapel of his suit and drew a black pistol from his inner pocket.

A pistol with a magazine inserted.

The barrel pointed directly at me.

At the space between my eyebrows.

Exactly between my brows.

“Hey, Jeong Haeil.”

“….”

“Are You Really Human?”

Two armed people.

One was looking at me with the intention of drilling through my skull.

The other was aiming at my temple from an angle capable of blowing it apart.

‘Ah, damn it.’

It was a ridiculous situation.

I had survived by doing my absolute best among monstrous superiors at the company, and now actual humans were interrogating me to find out whether I was the monster.

I silently bit my lips.

There was neither saliva nor blood left, but that was beside the point.

What mattered was figuring out how to answer so that neither of those triggers would be pulled.

‘Panic and beg for my life?’

Looking at that gaze so full of murderous intent, it felt as though if I showed weakness now, they would consider me suspicious and shoot me on the spot.

Shout that it was unfair and defend myself vehemently?

That was not something someone wearing strange beads on his wrist and carrying a pen made of bone could say.

In front of people who already distrusted me, a clumsy emotional appeal or panicking would accomplish nothing.

Then there was only one answer left.

Kill my emotions and fake an unnatural calmness.

It was the only survival method I knew.

When I reached that conclusion, I put on a faint smile.

“…I’m human.”

A calm tone.

I also suppressed any trembling in my eyes.

Following a consistent rule in an incomprehensible situation.

It was the moment when the poker face I had developed in the military and at the company proved its worth.

“If you don’t believe me, shoot me. You can confirm it by examining the corpse.”

Silence.

A truly brief silence.

“Pfft.”

A short mocking laugh.

It was Seo Ryu.

As if the whole thing were ridiculous, she let out a sneer of contempt while placing her finger on the trigger.

Click.

A loaded weapon.

And the trigger began to squeeze ever so slightly.

Very slightly.

This was not what I had intended.

At that moment—

Tap.

Yeom Hwi silently extended a hand and grabbed Seo Ryu’s arm.

His movement was firm and faster than any words.

“…Huu.”

Yeom Hwi let out a short sigh and lowered his gun.

Seo Ryu looked at him with a deeply furrowed brow.

“What?”

she muttered while lowering her weapon, lightly grinding her teeth.

I remained leaning against the wall, watching the scene.

My arms were numb, and my legs had been trembling for quite a while, but I had to pretend nothing was wrong.

Yeom Hwi looked directly at me and asked,

“How long have you been with the company?”

“…Around a month.”

“Department?”

“…Extraction Team 1.”

The instant I finished answering, both gun barrels were aimed at my head again from exactly the same angles as before.

‘Right now, I feel like crying.’

I couldn’t even sigh.

I swallowed and maintained a calm expression, completely opposite to the hell burning inside me.

Though after the previous failure, my composure had wavered somewhat.

Seo Ryu spoke in a visibly agitated tone.

“Team Leader. The correct course of action is to eliminate him.”

Yeom Hwi replied calmly.

“Be quiet for a moment.”

Seo Ryu clicked her tongue.

It was obvious she was displeased.

But she did not add anything else.

Yeom Hwi continued holding the gun while staring at me.

Those eyes left no room for wind or even the slightest crack.

It felt as though they were piercing through my skull to see what was inside.

My breathing became shallower.

I felt my lungs compress.

And then.

“…That’s enough.”

The barrel moved.

After a brief pause, the man holstered his weapon without another word.

“Because if he weren’t human, he wouldn’t die even if we shot him. What would be the point?”

Click.

With those words, the pistol disappeared into the inner pocket of his suit.

Seo Ryu also lowered her weapon with a frown and returned it to its holster.

That was all.

The tension eased slightly.

‘I really was about to die.’

Outwardly, I remained calm.

Not even my eyes moved.

But inside was a different story.

‘These damn lunatics…’

They really were going to shoot me.

In this hellish place where I wasn’t even allowed to breathe or relax, the first people I met had pointed guns at me.

“Let’s go.”

Yeom Hwi said briefly.

Seo Ryu nodded without concealing her distrust.

Her gaze swept over me once again.

The weapons had been lowered, but the threat remained.

“We’ll discuss the details while we walk.”

After saying that, Yeom Hwi took the lead.

I hesitated for a few seconds, but in the end, I followed them.

One step.

Then another.

The sound of my own footsteps behind them felt strangely unfamiliar.

It was the first time I had walked beside someone in this place.

‘Can I really walk with them?’

Did they actually trust me?

Or were they simply taking me along because they could use me?

‘Either way, it’s better than dying like a dog.’

I followed them in silence.

The shadows of the three of us stretched together through the darkness.

The old fluorescent lights overhead flickered from time to time.

“We know how to get out.”

Yeom Hwi said in a calm but firm voice.

“So follow us and don’t cause any trouble.”

I nodded.

I had no other choice.

I had already had a gun pointed at me twice.

A third time was completely out of the question.

I was simply choosing the option that gave me a slightly better chance of surviving.

Seo Ryu continued watching me until the very end.

Without saying a single word.

That gaze was sharper than a gun barrel and resembled instinct more than emotion.

Caution?

Distrust?

No.

It wasn’t that.

Hostility.

And an extraordinarily clear hostility.

‘But why?’

Just because I belonged to Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts?

It was far too obvious a hatred to be explained by a single reason.

I looked away from her and slowly turned my head.

The tips of my fingers were still numb.

Even though the tension had lessened, my heart continued beating steadily.

‘So this is the Department of Anomalous Disaster Management…’

The organization that had created the manual guiding survivors toward the exit.

The organization that understood the structure of this absurd place.

I still knew nothing about them.

But I had already reached one conclusion.

‘…These people are completely insane too.’

They hadn’t saved me.

They hadn’t welcomed me.

They had simply threatened me, pointed guns at me, questioned my identity, and decided whether or not they should kill me.

‘I don’t know who wrote the manual.’

But at least these two people in front of me didn’t look like saviors.

Yeom Hwi walked ahead.

Seo Ryu followed after letting out a short sigh.

I cast one last glance toward the dark end of the corridor.

It still felt as though something was waiting there.

***

We walked.

In silence.

For a long time, we moved forward without exchanging a single word.

We had left the presence behind long ago, and it still had not resumed following us.

But since we didn’t know when it might reappear, we didn’t stop.

Our pace was steady.

Danger, anxiety, and an indescribable silence floated through the air.

And within all of that, our strange companionship continued.

How much time passed?

The footsteps of Yeom Hwi, who was leading the group, came to a halt.

His heterochromatic eyes turned toward a wall along the corridor.

It was a room.

A collapsed sign.

A half-ripped door.

Twisted hinges.

The entrance to an abandoned building that, under normal circumstances, would have gone unnoticed.

“…”

Yeom Hwi stared at the door for a long moment.

Then he grasped the doorknob and turned it without saying a word.

With a creak, the heavy door slowly opened.

‘Here…’

An old room.

Worn wallpaper.

Antique furniture.

An unlit lamp.

It was an ordinary room, but when Yeom Hwi and Seo Ryu entered, I hesitated for a moment before following them.

The inside was quieter than I expected.

There was only a rickety bed on the verge of collapse, a worn single-person sofa, a dust-covered mirror, and a cracked dresser.

Naturally, there were no windows.

The ceiling lamp flickered unstably.

And yet, for some reason, it felt safer than those expressionless corridors.

Yeom Hwi stood in the middle of the room and ran a gloved hand over the thick layer of dust covering the dresser.

Seo Ryu remained by the door.

Although she had lowered her weapon, she was still watching the corridor with alert ears.

The shadows of the three of us intertwined within that narrow, damp room.

Yeom Hwi turned his head toward me.

His heterochromatic eyes alternately gleamed beneath the flickering light.

“Sit wherever you want.”

he said, gesturing with his chin toward an old sofa leaning against the wall, one of its legs broken.

His tone was too firm to be a suggestion and too relaxed to be an order.

I carefully sat down on the edge of the sofa.

The creak sounded absurdly loud.

Yeom Hwi sat on the edge of the dresser, pulled a pack of cigarettes from the inner pocket of his suit, then put it away again.

Afterward, his gaze alternated between my face and the beads of the Relics of the Smiling Martyr around my wrist.

“So you’re from the Extraction Team of Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts…”

His voice echoed heavily.

I didn’t know whether it was because of the dampness in the corridor or the thoughts he carried within him, but it seemed weighed down.

“I have many questions, but first I’ll ask you only one.”