Before opening my eyes.
I heard a voice echoing in my mind.
Instructions.
– You have been assigned to a new post. Follow the researcher’s instructions. You have been assigned to a new post. Follow the researcher’s instructions…
“Hello.”
I opened my eyes.
“Nice to et you. I was assigned to be in charge of… No, I’m your assistant.”
The first thing I saw was a mask.
Not a lting mosaic of a face, but a coated paper mask covering it.
It wasn’t the familiar Field Exploration Team mask I knew. It looked more like a child’s crayon drawing imitating it.
But I knew that animal.
“I’ll try not to get in your way as much as possible. …You can call Badger.”
Badger.
I recognized this person in the Security Team uniform…
Supervisor Park Minseong of the D-squad.
My sunbae.
“Let’s, um, work well together.”
And he couldn’t recognize .
“Now then, I’ll just give a brief introduction…”
Of course.
There is nothing in my current state that matches my forr self, Kim Soleum, except physical size, and he’s never seen this appearance before.
But then, sothing unexpected happened.
“…Why.”
Another person’s voice.
From the tone, the slow, flat intonation, I knew who it was.
I saw a slender human figure in a security guard’s uniform, pressing down the brim of his hat while standing at the door…
“Why… are you here.”
J3.
“Sergeant?”
“You… shouldn’t be here…”
……
I tried to speak, but realized my vocal cords weren’t where they should be, and I didn’t know where in my lted body they even were…
The smoke spelled out words.
Employnt contract
“…You said you were quitting.”
New employnt contract
: Permanent employnt
“……”
I lowered the smoke.
“Sergeant, what do you an, quitting…”
The person in the badger mask stiffened, his voice tense with confusion.
Uncertainty and confusion showed in his short, quick breaths, and hesitation as he tried to figure out the situation…
And then, as if suddenly realizing sothing shocking, he inhaled sharply.
He’d rembered.
A mutual acquaintance, soone who recently left the company safely.
And the one who lost contact.
“…Roe?”
There was no answer.
The one in the badger mask stared at , frozen.
Then looked back at the sergeant.
The sergeant did not deny it.
Instead, he opened the door and left the room.
Click.
The iron door locked.
“N-No… No. This, I, I’m… It’s just…”
He tried to calm his breathing.
It ca from the badger mask.
The signs of contamination, flaring up from agitation, were hidden by the mask.
Only after more than forty seconds had passed did the badger mask, having completely shaken off the identity of a teacher from the kindergarten affiliated with ■■, finally take a deep breath.
And then I heard,
“It’ll, it’ll be alright.”
The sound of footsteps approaching.
“Being on the Security Team, that ans, at least, you can communicate, right? There’s got to be a way. I recovered too… Right?”
I moved the smoke.
Impossible
“…!”
Contamination is when a being that was once human is transford by supernatural phenona.
Recovery from contamination ans regaining one’s original human body and mind.
And.
“Roe.”
Impossible
I don’t have the forr.
“…Soleum-ah.”
……
I started to form another word, but instead, I scattered the smoke and contained it inside my gas mask.
For so reason, I felt resistance to continuing.
A desperate voice ca.
“Um… So, doesn’t it feel strange to hear your real na?”
It doesn’t matter at all.
“Don’t you have any reaction? Confusion, or anything…? It’d be normal if you did. So…”
Showing a strange reaction to one’s original na is a typical sign of contamination.
It has nothing to do with .
“Soleum……”
Tap.
Park Minseong, about to say my na again, suddenly flinched and gripped his wrist tightly.
The Security Team’s control wristwatch.
Tick, tick.
The ticking of the watch.
And now, a warning chi, which I hadn’t heard before, faintly sounded for as well, since I shared a similar contractual relationship.
– Risk of safety rule violation detected. Ti remaining until confinent for retraining has been reduced by 7 seconds. 71 seconds, 70 seconds, 69 seconds…
A restriction to control the actions of contaminated Security Team mbers, like the guidance I hear in my head.
He must have realized he’d violated the safety rule against using real nas on the job.
Thus, I witnessed one of the specific chanisms not described in detail in the .
But it does not matter.
What matters is…
– You have been assigned to a new post. Follow the researcher’s instructions.
Work.
“……”
“……”
What should I do?
Only in the silence did I finally begin to look around at where I was.
A rusted iron door. An enclosed space. It resembles Basent Floor 13, Room 666 of the annex, but it is not the sa place.
But I can tell where this is.
– Daydream Inc. Main Building, Underground Isolation Cell.
Back when I was still human, this was the very place I’d been assigned to clean as a disciplinary action.
This was also the place where I had been transported together with Supervisor Park Minseong, after losing consciousness upon clearing the ‘Hungry Hangman’.
This was the isolation corridor accessible only through the Security Team’s equipnt storage, and the isolation cells within…
But I can feel it.
This place is much deeper inside than the isolation cell where I was quarantined after being rescued from the ‘Hungry Hangman’ Darkness.
Far, far deeper than the place I visited for disciplinary cleaning, in the innermost core…… located in the central isolation sector. My instincts as a staff mber tell so.
And then, there was the shape of this sealed room.
I ran my gloved fingers across the lamp on the desk.
A lamp, a wooden desk, a bed, a towel.
I recognize this setup.
‘Company housing.’
It’s the exact sa room as when Employee Kim Soleum stayed in the company dormitory.
Every item, down to the smallest prop, has been obsessively replicated.
It feels almost ritualistic, ceremonial in its arrangent.
It’s as if they’re trying not to offend the mood of the Darkness bound by the employnt contract, or trying to placate it.
At the sa ti, I sense that they’re waiting for my reaction…
‘Is this Kwak Jekang’s doing?’
It’s the kind of thing that researcher would do.
I swept my gloved fingers across the desk.
Should I be angry?
My shattered, lted brain tries to think as it used to, but it’s difficult…
‘So then, does this an that I… From now on, I’m not responsible for the annex basent, but for security in the main building’s underground isolation cells?’
That’s not difficult.
But if that’s the case…
That person isn’t needed.
“…!”
I stared at the badger mask.
AuthorRecent Posts
Salt Goblin
Latest posts by Salt Goblin (see all)
Reviews
All reviews (0)