An Extinction-class supernatural disaster.
Segwang Metropolitan City.
And a seal that erases it from reality.
Agent Haegeum listened to our explanation quite calmly.
Given the nature of 'Director Ho's Project,' I had been deeply conflicted about whether I should tell a Management Bureau agent the truth, but in the end, I decided it was for the best.
'It's better to build trust than to get caught in a lie.'
To a veteran team leader who already had a rough idea of the whole story from the incident at Sekwang Technical High School, trying to be evasive would likely lead to a bad outcome. And…
'If worst comes to worst, we might even be able to get help.'
In any case, after hearing the whole story, Agent Haegeum's eyebrows twitched, and she sighed.
"I see."
"..."
"The Management Bureau… made a tremendous decision."
"Noonim, are you going to report this to the higher-ups…?"
"I won't. For now."
Agent Haegeum's expression was complicated, but she stated it firmly.
"In the first place, it's probably better not to increase the number of people who know about that 'Metropolitan City.' If the cognitive erasure is real…"
"..."
"…Agent?"
"No."
Agent Haegeum cut him off.
"For now, just keep that in mind. …Contact me when you go to explore that Metropolitan City."
"...!!"
"In case of an emergency, it's better to have at least one place to ask for help. You reckless brats."
"Ugh, Noonim!"
"You're their Seonbae, and you're causing trouble with just the kids. You brat."
After smacking Agent Choi on the head, Agent Haegeum's eyes met Agent Bronze's, who steeled himself as if bracing for impact. She patted him on the head instead.
"You've been through a lot."
"…?!"
And finally… she looked back at me.
"Agent Grapes."
....
"Are you… trying to become a person? Or were you a person to begin with?"
>Multiple correct answers.
At least, that's what I hope.
"…Is that so?"
Agent Haegeum grinned.
"If you have reason, can communicate, and feel compassion, well, you're no different from a person."
....
"Above all, you used this thing."
Agent Haegeum tapped the sword hanging at her waist.
Having used it once, the Sai Sword no longer looked like just a long, silver sword.
It was as if that immense and unbearable demonic power had been etched into my mind. Though I can't be sure where my brain is.
Come to think of it….
>Question: The state of the hand lost at Sekwang High.
"Well, the will-o'-the-wisp is just putting in a little more effort."
It seemed that one of Agent Haegeum's currently moving hands was being replaced by a will-o'-the-wisp.
Just like I had been one day.
"Let's leave it at that. I have a lot to do."
The ever-busy Agent Haegeum finally stood up from her seat.
"Call me if you need me."
And with that, Agent Haegeum left her contact information and departed.
'…It feels like a new team member has been unlocked.'
It seemed Agent Haegeum would likely join us during our exploration of Segwang Metropolitan City.
Though it wasn't the time for it, I calmed my slightly fluttering heart.
And upon returning to the Fox Counseling Room, I met the original exploration team member.
"Mr. Roe Deer."
Section Chief Lee Jaheon had arrived and was waiting.
Since he had accompanied us and provided significant physical help in closing the Sekwang High case, I thought he had probably come to talk about that.
>Section Chief Lizards' purpose for visiting (Inference):
To share the exploration results.
"That is not it."
Huh?
The snout of the reptilian alien, which again looked like a white lizard's head, drew a slight arc.
"Our reward has arrived."
If he means 'our reward'….
…!!
—I… want to regain a human body.
—It is possible.
That's it.
My human form.
***
A short while later, following the ominous instruction 'Can be influenced,' I left the Fox Counseling Room and went to Section Chief Lee Jaheon's company residence.
And onto the dining table, Manager Lee Jaheon placed an 'object.'
"This is the item requested as a reward."
It was a rectangular packaged box.
◎Egg Mood Lamp◎
The product name was written as such, and the image on the front showed the design of a cute, beige, egg-shaped mood lamp.
It looked like one of those mid-to-low-priced mood lamps commonly exchanged as birthday presents through the KakaoTalk Gift page.
The kind made of a soft, squishy material in the shape of a cute character or object.
But the fact that this was the reward meant it wasn't an ordinary object.
An 'Item.'
A supernatural phenomenon classified as a ghost story, which would return a human form to me.
And if it's from the 'Cosmic shopping mall,' it's guaranteed not to be fatally dangerous.
>130666's status: Grateful.
"Yes."
>Question: How to use it.
"You can learn how through the enclosed instruction manual. Do you wish to be informed of the instructions verbally?"
>I'll hold off for now.
"Yes."
I immediately opened the box, took out the manual, placed on top, and read it.
Thank you for purchasing the Sunshine Edit Shop's Egg (Successor Egg) Mood Lamp series!
This series is a mystical product that allows you to watch the growth and birth of life inside the egg through the mood lamp's gentle light and shadow. The resulting creation can also be used independently.
Try using the nerves and muscles of the observed life form yourself! And enjoy the cool special effects!
※Warning: Do not, under any circumstances, wake the final product.
Ah, this.
It was a ghost story that wasn't on the wiki.
'It's the kind I like to read, though.'
It was the perfect kind of object-based ghost story for killing time at the office.
And after reading it, I could grasp what kind of cliché ghost story it was.
'It's not an egg-shaped mood lamp, but an actual egg from which something is born.'
And the life that will grow inside this mood lamp egg….
The resulting creation can also be used independently.
Try using the nerves and muscles of the observed life form yourself!
It seems I can use it as my body.
'…The description seems a bit gruesome.'
But my current state is probably more gruesome. Having survived in this Ghost Story Worldview, I think I can handle this much now.
'Cough.'
And as I turned the page to read the next part, I saw a sticker blocking the page's content.
'Hmm?'
It was a kind of quality assurance certificate.
The sticker, with its flashy colors and font, contrasted with the manual and stood out immediately.
'It was a product from that place!'
Then the effect will surely be dramatic. The products introduced there are often advertised with a focus on dramatic changes or very attractive features.
Like the Blood Bath I bought for Braun, for example.
—[Oh, of course I remember, Mr. Roe Deer! It was a friend's first gift. A memorable item indeed.]
—[However… hmm. Yes. For another item introduced on 'that' home shopping program to fall into your hands, Mr. Roe Deer.]
For some reason, I sense a hint of displeasure in Braun's tone.
'Weren't… the two of them on pretty good terms?'
Aren't they both broadcast-related ghost stories?
He even invited a teddy bear from that home shopping channel to the Late-Night Talk Show.
I'm starting to remember that I, completely contaminated by the talk show, was even involved in casting that teddy bear….
[Oh, of course. TV shows and advertisements have a mutually beneficial relationship. Of course, even within that, there is a clear hierarchy.]
[Just as a background prop cannot replace the lead actor!]
…So the Late-Night Talk Show is the lead, and the commercials are mere background props?
[Haha, 'mere'? You have a somewhat rough but witty way with words, my friend! Yes. You are not wrong.]
[Making the viewers anxious for the TV show's next segment, and providing the budget for the show's production…. Is that not the essential role of an advertisement? This Braun, as the humble host of the show, is sufficiently grateful for such advertisements with a sincere heart.]
[But recently, that home shopping program has been somewhat forgetting its place.]
'I-I see.'
It seems Delusion Home Shopping did something to get on the legendary host's bad side….
Let's move on for now. If I listen any further, it might lead to something like, 'Would you like to visit the talk show to find out the detailed circumstances?'….
'I should probably refrain from buying from that home shopping channel. But for now, I'll keep reading this manual. I've been waiting a long time for this.'
[Of course, Mr. Roe Deer. I am looking forward to it as well!]
Phew.
I carefully peeled off the sticker and placed it in an empty space, then read the rest of the hidden manual.
Now, the part that actually looked like an instruction manual was beginning.
Required items:
2ml of blood from the life form to be cultured
3cm of body hair from the life form to be cultured
100ml of saline solution
'A body fragment of the life form to be cultured?'
Hmm.
>Question: Are there limits on designating the life form?
"There are not. Do you require the blood and body hair of a life form with specific physical conditions?"
Well, about that.
'It feels a bit wrong to arbitrarily culture and use someone else's body.'
Whether they're living or dead.
I glanced at the Lizard Section Chief.
'Come to think of it, why did he look human at Sekwang High?'
And why did he have black hair? Such questions momentarily crossed my mind, but since I was preoccupied with other concerns, they just passed by.
'For now, my blood and hair are… a bit problematic, aren't they?'
I wasn't even sure if this stuff would be considered blood and hair. Isn't it more like bodily fluids and byproducts…?
It's not like I can go find the blood and hair from when I had the body of 'Kim Soleum.'
'When I was human, the thought of storing my blood and hair separately never even occurred to me.'
Even in a Ghost Story Worldview. No, especially because it's a Ghost Story Worldview. I don't know what would happen if I lost them.
Of course, the kind of person who would do such a thing to a perfectly normal person in the first place....
....
Hmm.
'There might be one.'
Kwak Jegang.
It seems the time has come to pay a visit to the company.
***
"Employee!!"
Tap, tap.
Inside the transport cage, I made a sign so he would notice.
Late at night. In the research team's office, which I visited as inconspicuously as possible with Section Chief Lee Jaheon, only Kwak Jegang was present, his face flushed red.
"Haha, how long has it been! Isn't this the first time since you went into the Annex last time?"
That's right.
I met Director Cheong there and almost got royally fucked….
Come to think of it, it was Kwak Jegang who told me Director Cheong was coming.
>Question:
Any retaliatory measures from Director Cheong?
"Eh? Ah, you mean me? Hahaha! My, I don't know what to do with myself, you worrying about me like this…. Well, nothing much has happened."
Hmm.
"Even if she knew, she'd just let a researcher as dedicated to his work as I am continue working. She's that kind of superior."
On Kwak Jegang's smiling face was the unique madness of a scientist who was so absorbed in his research that nothing else mattered.
If that research hadn't been ghost stories, he might have truly contributed to society, but the problem was that it was, in fact, ghost stories.
But the irony of life is that this time, I might get help from that very disposition.
>Request:
Blood and hair of (former) Field Investigation Team D Assistant Manager Kim Sol-eum.
"Hmm? What do you mean…."
Kwak Jegang was about to react nonchalantly but paused.
Poke.
Because my smoke had poked his own missing pinky finger.
"...Well, we do collect them lightly during the physical examination in the hiring process. Strictly for research purposes, you see!"
In the end, Kwak Jegang brought the items from somewhere.
"Here, these are the samples from Team D."
I checked the screw-cap vials Kwak Jegang held out.
Stored in a sample box, they were labeled with dates and names, and contained not only hair and blood but sometimes even flesh and fingernails.
'Forget the flesh, where the hell did he get the fingernails.'
Looking at a piece of Section Chief Lee Jaheon's fingernail, I briefly wondered if it was a lizard's nail or not, but in the end, I quickly picked up only what I needed.
Team D Kim Soleum / Hair
Team D Kim Soleum / Blood
Alright, now to go back and use the mood lamp….
"You're going to use it, right? Where? How? Are you going to use it on the Darkness? For replication? Examination? Qualification verification? A curse? I'm really... curious."
....
"Please let me observe. Please."
This is burdensome….
But Kwak Jegang has already made a 'pinky promise' with me, so he can't pull any funny business.
'In that case, it might be better to proceed with an expert present.'
>Instruction:
Until completion,
no noise or interruptions.
"Hahaha, yes!"
>Condition: Permission from Section Chief Lizard .
"…You. Do you need anything?"
"Yes."
I have no idea how he did it, but Kwak Jegang somehow reached an agreement with the lizard and ended up following us all the way to the company residence.
'Sigh.'
>Instruction: Wait without making noise.
"..."
After telling him to be quiet.
I gently took the mood lamp completely out of the box.
The soft, squishy, white egg-shaped mood lamp had a slot at the bottom that opened to the inside, and I opened it to fill the mood lamp with the blood and hair.
'And then….'
Connect the power cord, and turn it on.
This process must be carried out in darkness or shadow, with no lighting.
As instructed, a light flickered on in the mood lamp in the darkness.
'…!'
Just like candling an egg to check if it's fertilized by seeing the blood vessels inside, I could see blood vessels and cells through the lamp's orange glow.
And they grew.
"..."
It was like the growth of a chick, like culturing cells in a lab, and like the birth of an alien life form from an SF movie.
The important thing was that the shadow grew larger, intricately displaying nerves, blood vessels, and organs, forming a silhouette inside the mood lamp.
[Oh, Mr. Roe Deer. That appears to be a hand. Look at it clenching and unclenching!]
It was certainly mystical.
Like a biology education video from 100 years in the future played at 10,000x speed, the life inside grew and took shape.
A small, bipedal life form the size of the mood lamp.
Into an adult.
"..."
♫
Soon, with a short recorded sound, the mood lamp's light turned green.
The completion mark.
'It's done.'
I reached out, opened the mood lamp, and poured its contents onto a prepared towel.
And then.
"…!!"
The mood lamp's opening widened bizarrely, and it spat out a life-sized human.
Kim Soleum.
A body with the same height as my previous self.
"It really is Kim Soleum. My, my, to think there was a method like this…!"
....
I managed to take a breath in and out.
That thing.
>Question: Evaluation of facial features.
"Eh? Well, he's handsomely featured. Hahaha! Surely you weren't unsure of what Kim Soleum looked like?"
No. That's not the problem….
So, to Kwak Jegang, that looks like Kim Soleum's head?
....
But you see.
What I'm seeing is a little different.
....
'It's a lizard head…!'
What was before my eyes was the body of Kim Soleum with the head of a reptilian alien!
'Lizard!'
What is going on?