The Cheerful Research Institute office.
Director Ho.
A black roulette.
Sothing dangerous.
“Soleum—”
Instinctively, I shrouded Director Ho’s face in smoke.
The man wearing a Cheerful Research Institute employee badge vanished into the black fog, his silhouette swallowed. I tried to read its nature and paraters, to erase him…
“Did you know? Killing would violate company regulations.”
……
“Maybe, if you had proof I was a threat to the company… but do you?”
……
I dispelled the smoke.
Erging from it, Director Ho still wore that unchanging smile.
Leaving a trace of smoke around his neck as a precaution, I conveyed my words.
Request for explanation of situation
“Ah, I was making rounds to check Security Team operations… and I just happened to see the button for Basent Floor 29. So I pressed it.”
……
Liar
“Yes?”
I raised my hand and flicked the ID card hanging from his neck.
Prepared in advance.
“Ah.”
Glancing down at the badge, Director Ho’s lips curled in a crooked smile.
“Still sharp as ever. Even after ending up like this?”
He swept his gaze over , as if mocking the security uniform prototype he himself had given , before continuing.
“That’s right. I co down sotis too, looking for a certain Darkness. With this badge, I can wander this hell in relative safety.”
…Hell?
A strange choice of words.
But what was more important…
Origin of employee ID
“Sorry, but I don’t see any reason to tell you… Ah, unless you’d like to borrow it? Want to try wearing it?”
Director Ho whispered kindly.
“If you put this on, you’ll be able to see the employees of the Cheerful Research Institute. Just for you, Soleum-nim, I’ll let you see them.”
……
I turned away and resud my search.
“Soleum-nim?”
‘No need to get dragged in anymore.’
I’d found at least one upside to being bound to Director Cheong while no longer in a human body.
I didn’t have to flinch or answer to this guy’s words anymore.
“Soleum-nim?”
I slipped the roulette into the pocket of my uniform and kept inspecting the office.
“Why are you taking that? Is it a Darkness… Ah, I thought so. I suspected it too, but I guess you spotted it right away.”
Director Ho’s tone was almost casual as he went on.
“Maybe Darknesses created in the Cheerful Research Institute can recognize each other?”
I froze.
Just now.
“I know you were born from the Cheerful Research Institute’s last Dream Incubator, Soleum-nim.”
……
Question : Ti of discovery
“Of course, from our very first eting.”
…!
“But I suppose you made a bad wish, seeing how you ended up contracted to Director Cheong.”
I turned to look at Director Ho.
He grinned at with a smile that’s like a painting.
“Still, this is better for you. Daydream Inc. will take things in no matter what form they’re in. As long as there’s value to exploit… Like you, Soleum-nim.”
Twisted logic.
And that na.
Request : Change of address
Do not call by my real na.
“But Soleum-nim is still Soleum-nim, right?”
Was it deliberate?
Hearing my real na spoken in the middle of a Darkness made every nerve stand on end.
Especially here, in the Cheerful Research Institute.
And even more so because it was coming from Director Ho.
“If it bothers you so much, I can change how I address you. How about Roe Deer-nim?”
I stared at him.
“Silence ans yes, then, Roe Deer-nim!”
Question : Things you know about
“I know you’re soone very special. Special enough that the last remaining researchers of the Cheerful Research Institute risked everything to summon you and smuggle you out, and…”
Director Ho’s voice flattened, stripped of all expression.
“Special enough that, despite never running any intelligence operations, you could tell information about Sekwang Special tropolitan City as if you already knew it when I asked.”
……
‘So he was suspecting .’
When I handed over intel and claid my Wish Ticket, I hadn’t cared if he found suspicious.
I never imagined I’d run into him again like this.
But I realized sothing.
‘He doesn’t know who I really am.’
That I’d co from a world without ghost stories, where this world existed only as the wiki.
Even if he’d seen the experint logs I had read while rummaging through this underground Cheerful Research Institute, he didn’t have the full picture.
Which ant…
He wanted information from .
And I had no reason—nor intention—to give him any answers.
I resud my search.
“How about a trade? We exchange what we know. About who we really are.”
Not necessary.
“Could I co with you? I get scared walking alone…”
Statent of fear
► Grounds for disqualification as a Daydream employee
“…It’s fine. That only applies to regular employees.”
Director Ho once again smiled kindly, like a simple-minded staffer.
“I’m a contract worker, so it’s fine. …Just like you.”
……If being permanently bound and having your life mortgaged could be called ‘contract work’.
“Roe Deer-nim?”
I stepped out of the office.
Footsteps followed behind .
So did his voice.
“Roe Deer-nim?”
……
“Please, let co with you, Roe Deer-nim.”
Warning 1
Reason : Obstruction of duties
Cumulative warnings : 1 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 2
“…Are you saying you’re going to discipline ?”
Warning 2
Reason : Obstruction of duties
Cumulative warnings : 2 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 1
“Did soone tell you you could treat this way? Director Cheong Dallae? Researcher Kwak Jekang? Guard Sergeant J3? Supervisor Park Min—”
Warning 3
Reason : Obstruction of duties
I turned around and grabbed him by the neck.
“…!”
Cumulative warnings : 3 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 0
Execution
The smoke coiled around Director Ho’s neck surged upward, covering his face once more. Director Ho reached out his hand, but…
‘Nope.’
I seized that hand with my other hand, crushing it as if crumpling paper.
……
……
“Ah, I touched it.”
[Goodness. Careful there, Friend!]
Director Ho’s fingers bent at unnatural angles. His hand gripped the zipper at the wrist of my security suit—
Ziiiiiip.
—and pulled it down.
“You shouldn’t say such things while wearing the shroud I crafted for you. While the covenant you made with is still in place, you shouldn’t say such things.”
His long fingers, joints twisting, reached for the amorphous flesh exposed as the zipper ca undone.
Blisters rose on that flesh.
“Man. You dare lay your hand…”
An attempt to invoke a binding.
But the blisters swelled slower than before, his hand twisting unnaturally.
Barely restrained.
‘How dare you.’
I engulfed him entirely in smoke. And before he could recite the binding’s incantation, I read him first.
The record of Director Ho, employee of Daydream Inc.
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