Chapter 30: The Control Team of the Department of Anomalous Disaster Management (2)

Chsss.

I turned my head at the sound of a brief spray.

Seo Ryu lightly shook a black bottle she had pulled from her clothing toward the wall beside the door.

With a soft splash, a transparent liquid shot out and soaked the surface.

And it was at that exact moment.

The door disappeared.

Without a sound.

Without smoke.

The heavy iron door I had passed through myself only moments earlier became a smooth wall, as if it had never existed.

“…What the hell is this?”

The words slipped from my lips before I realized it.

The creaking hinges, the rusty sensation beneath my hands, even the smell of mold that had brushed against my nose were still as vivid as before.

And yet, all that remained before me was a solid concrete wall.

“Why are you so surprised?”

Sitting on the bed, Yeom Hwi let out a dry laugh.

As he watched me with one corner of his mouth raised, a strange calmness was reflected in his eyes.

It wasn’t exactly mockery.

It felt more like the everyday boredom of someone who had grown accustomed to everything.

“In your company, this must be a pretty common occurrence.”

At Yeom Hwi’s joke, Seo Ryu slowly turned her body.

She still said nothing, but the sharp intensity in her eyes conveyed a perfectly clear message.

‘The craziest monsters are you people.’

I stared fixedly at the entrance, now transformed into a wall.

The escape route had vanished.

This place had become completely isolated from the outside world.

Rather than fear from having no exit, I felt a strange sense of relief at that unreal isolation.

At least I could no longer hear the constant “clank” coming from the other side.

A heavy silence settled over the room once more.

I felt like I could breathe more easily, but the unease weighing on my back was still there.

I slowly turned my head and looked around the room.

A dilapidated bed.

A dresser with worn corners.

A cracked leather sofa.

A dust-covered mirror.

The appearance of an old and completely ordinary motel room.

And yet, the presence of those two people in the center of the room transformed the place into a massive interrogation chamber.

Seo Ryu remained against the wall with her arms crossed.

Yeom Hwi swung one leg while staring directly at me.

I wanted to say something.

Anything.

But my tongue seemed stuck to the roof of my mouth.

It was Yeom Hwi who broke the silence first.

“Extraction Team 1.”

Those words hung in the air and grew cold.

“…That’s what you said?”

I narrowed my eyes.

After several seconds of hesitation, I nodded cautiously.

Seo Ryu took a short breath and frowned.

A deep crease formed between her brows.

Her gaze became even sharper.

‘Here we go again.’

Then Yeom Hwi turned his head toward her.

He said nothing.

But there was a warning in his eyes.

A silent order.

Be quiet and wait.

Seo Ryu responded with a brief click of her tongue before looking away.

“You’re not from the Emotional Department?”

The moment I heard those words, it felt as though something struck me in the head.

The memories came rushing back.

The siren that had pierced my eardrums in the Extraction Room echoed once more.

Crash—Bang!

Chaos.

Debris.

Released dimensional entities.

Blood.

Screams.

And then.

Boom!

It exploded.

I remembered it perfectly.

Assistant Manager Son.

Without saying a single word.

Without hesitation.

Crushing an employee’s head until it exploded.

Even though the room’s temperature had not dropped, I felt cold sweat run down my back.

At that moment, Yeom Hwi’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“Hey, come back to your senses, Jeong Haeil.”

His tone sounded tired.

But also calm.

And firm.

There was a weight to his words that made them difficult to ignore.

“Don’t get complacent just because you’re in the Extraction Team. Do you really think those monsters consider you a real employee?”

I raised my head and our gazes met.

Heterochromatic eyes.

Gray and brown.

There was no doubt in them.

Only conviction.

“This is an opportunity you won’t get many times. Make good use of it. Depending on how you answer, you might leave here with us. When you fell into this place, who did you find? Not those monsters. Us.”

I swallowed silently.

My throat felt like it was burning.

My mouth was completely dry.

“Speak slowly. What do you do there?”

He wasn’t leaning against anything.

He hadn’t drawn a weapon.

And yet, it was an interrogation.

A question impossible to refuse.

An atmosphere that demanded answers.

“…You said you’ve been with the company for about a month?”

I nodded slowly.

I hesitated.

But I hid nothing.

“How big is the company?”

“…I don’t know.”

“And the building?”

“I can’t tell.”

“Where is the headquarters?”

“……”

How did he manage to ask only things I didn’t know?

Yeom Hwi looked at me with obvious displeasure.

Seo Ryu was looking at me as if she were ready to pull the trigger at any moment.

But what could I do?

I truly didn’t know.

Their eyes examined every word and every breath I took, searching for any trace of a lie.

‘I’m sleepy.’

I took a deep breath and leaned against a corner of the bed.

The wall behind me was cold.

Without realizing it, my gaze drifted toward Seo Ryu.

She was still watching me.

That look.

It was impossible to describe with words.

It wasn’t caution.

It wasn’t suspicion.

It was obvious hostility.

I looked back at Yeom Hwi.

He remained silent, mentally organizing everything I had told him.

Confusion.

Distrust.

Analysis.

And at the center of it all was me.

‘I thought it would be better than being alone.’

But that didn’t mean I was safe.

In fact, a hostility deeper and older than any gun barrel or lurking presence floated in the air.

My thoughts slowly mixed together like sand inside my head before settling at the bottom.

Yeom Hwi’s question continued to echo.

‘…Do those monsters really consider me a real employee?’

‘Of course not.’

The words of a stranger pierced me in a strange way.

Slowly, several faces began appearing in my mind.

Supervisor Shik.

A rough and intimidating monster, but a beast who, in his own way, always looked after me.

Assistant Manager Son.

A monster who played around with that fist-shaped head, but who had at least always been kind to me.

Manager Batori.

Tentacles sometimes emerged from her, but behind the smell of blood there was always a kind of gentleness.

Director Mok.

A superior who, with his countless roots, branches, and leaves, was the one who worked hardest to take care of a human like me.

And Manager Myeon.

I still didn’t understand that monster.

But I could feel that monster was trying to understand me.

‘…Ha.’

It was absurd.

No matter how much I thought about it.

That company was.

A hell.

An asylum.

A gathering of monsters.

A deserted island of deadly survival where it seemed they handed out licenses to kill.

‘…I’ve been completely brainwashed.’

I couldn’t even laugh.

To begin with, I didn’t have the strength to do so.

But at least those monsters had never tried to kill me.

Never.

Sure, they could have.

They undoubtedly had the ability.

But these people.

These humans.

The first thing they did when they saw me was draw their weapons.

No explanations.

No reasons.

I slowly raised my head.

Yeom Hwi was sitting on the bed.

Seo Ryu remained leaning against the wall where the door had been.

And between us stretched an uncomfortable silence.

“What about you?”

My voice echoed softly through the room.

Yeom Hwi turned his gaze toward me.

Seo Ryu didn’t even turn her head; she merely twisted her lips slightly.

“What?”

“What kind of people are you?”

There was a brief silence.

Neither of them changed their expression.

But a slight tension passed through the air.

And that alone was enough to prove that my question was not irrelevant.

“I already told you. We’re from the Department of Anomalous Disaster Management.”

“Yes. You’re the Team Leader of the Control Team. She’s the Sub-Team Leader.”

I nodded slightly.

I took a deep breath.

And before exhaling it, I spoke.

“But what exactly does that mean?”

“……”

“You know this place in detail. You wrote the guides. And from the way you speak, it seems you completely understand this space.”

“And?”

“What I mean is…”

Slowly, I shifted my gaze from Yeom Hwi to Seo Ryu.

She was still staring at me without looking away.

Expressionless.

But her gaze said far more than any expression could.

Distrust.

Fear.

And unmistakable hatred.

I looked back at Yeom Hwi.

“The people who pointed guns at my head twice turn out to be my only way out of here.”

“……”

“Then I need to be able to trust you, don’t I?”

Yeom Hwi let out a short laugh.

It wasn’t mockery.

Nor was it kindness.

It was the expression of an exhausted person.

He lightly tapped his knee with his fingers as he replied.

“Even if you don’t trust us, you’ll still have to follow us.”

“……”

“You don’t know whether you can trust us? There’s no one here you can trust.”

He hit the mark exactly.

I was left speechless and lowered my gaze for a moment.

Then he added,

“I understand, though. From your position, this must be something very important.”

“It is.”

“Good. But I have a condition.”

He rested his chin on one hand.

Both of his eyes pierced through me.

It was a familiar sensation.

The same look as before.

“Tell us about that company. Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts. Tell us everything you know. From what I can see, there are a lot of things you don’t know, so only talk about what you actually do know. If you give us information, we’ll give you information too.”

Seo Ryu frowned slightly.

But she remained silent.

She seemed willing to listen to whatever I had to say.

I slowly closed my eyes and opened them again.

My breathing steadied.

My heart returned to a normal rhythm.

I thought.

For only a few moments.

But they contained countless thoughts.

And just as I was about to answer.

RUMBLEEEEE!

The entire room shook.

“…!”

A vibration so powerful it stole my breath.

The floor warped as though it were made of rubber.

The old furniture creaked and jumped.

Dust rose into the air.

The ceiling tilted.

“What the hell is this…?!”

I involuntarily turned my head.

Seo Ryu had already pushed herself away from the wall and was standing.

Yeom Hwi had also raised his gaze, his expression unreadable.

BOOM!

One of the walls literally exploded.

A cloud of dust and cement erupted as the wall collapsed with a deafening crash.

Instinctively, I curled my body inward.

“…!”

Fragments of furniture flew through the air.

The smell of cement flooded my nose.

By the time I regained my bearings, half of the room was gone.

And then.

From the other side.

Something approached.

Step.

The sound of footsteps filled with intent.

A silhouette slowly emerging from the darkness.

CRACK!

Fragments of the shattered mirror crunched beneath her feet.

“Oh.”

It was a woman’s voice.

Soft.

Calm.

Strangely ordinary for a place like this.

“Is this a recruitment attempt?”

Tearing through the darkness, she appeared.

She was wearing exactly the same clothes as Go Gyeol, whom I had seen in the Order Control Room.

An immaculate black shirt.

A white suit.

The difference was the pale leather coat she wore over it, meticulously crafted by stitching together fragments of human skin.

Eyelashes.

Lips.

Embedded across the surface of the coat.

They writhed faintly as though breathing.

Completely white hair.

A long, thin braid draped over her shoulder.

And the moment our eyes met.

“…!”

My heart shuddered.

Her left eye.

The sclera was completely black.

A white iris embedded within a dark abyss.

The strangest eyes I had ever seen.

Stranger even than those of any dimensional entity.

“I came to rescue you, Employee Jeong Haeil.”

She spoke in a soft and composed voice.

Craaack.

The stitched face on the left side of her coat opened its mouth.

‘What the hell is that…?’

What emerged from that skin-mouth was not words.

It was a business card.

As if it were spitting it out.

The face vomited up a black card.

She caught it between her fingers.

Then she elegantly flicked her wrist and tossed it in front of my feet.

The card landed precisely before me.

Manager Moon Ara

Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts | Moon Ara Head of the Security Team of the Order Control Room

‘The Order Control Room.’

The people who had contained the disaster when the dimensional entities escaped from the Extraction Room.

The same white uniform worn by Go Gyeol, whom I met in the Prototype Storage Room.

“It’s been a while.”

An anger sharper than a gunshot.

Yeom Hwi sprang to his feet.

He pulled aside his suit jacket.

Drew a pistol without hesitation.

And aimed it directly between Moon Ara’s eyebrows.

“Oh, it’s been a long time, Team Leader Yeom.”

At that relaxed response, the corner of Yeom Hwi’s mouth twitched slightly.

A hatred that seemed carved into his very bones could be felt.

“Yes. Have you been well?”

His voice was cold as ice.

“You damn bitch.”