Outside the Church of the Luminous Unknown’s underground bunker.
Jisan Village, empty of people, was already half-destroyed.
The mont he burst out through the likewise shattered bunker door and saw the scene before him, Ryu Jaekwan nearly bit his tongue. And then—
“Oh, you’re outt!”
A voice sounded right beside him.
“…!”
Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae of Daydream Inc.’s elite team was leaning by the door. She turned to him and waved.
Ryu Jaekwan, about to speak, hesitated for a beat.
‘How…’
How can she be that unfazed?
Two people who’d been trapped inside a bizarre supernatural disaster that locks people up for decades and digests them had just gotten out.
It should have been certain death.
He’d even been told, repeatedly, that once the box closes it never opens again. Even he, having co out, was bewildered at what had happened…
“Why…”
“Am I not surprisedd?”
…!
“Well, you went in with Mr. Employee, didn’t you.”
She looked at the ‘Agent Grapes’ Ryu Jaekwan was carrying.
Light glinted in Lee Seonghae’s pupils.
“Mr. Mascot is stronger than that box!”
“……”
Mascot?
Even the odd title felt uncanny…
Ryu Jaekwan glanced down, almost unconsciously, at Kim Soleum, who’d been called by that title, and asked himself.
How did I get out?
‘…That sound I heard earlier.’
There had been sothing twisting the Ascetic in the Box, which had been babbling strange sounds, in a brutally chanical way. That was…
……
‘…Agent Grapes?’
“Anyway, are you looking for your fellow agent?”
“…!”
He snapped out of the strange thoughts.
“Yes.”
Drawing a breath, Agent Bronze refocused on the situation.
Then, Agent Choi’s whereabouts…
“They’re all over there.”
BAM.
Right then, another trendous crash rang out.
Ryu Jaekwan jerked his head toward the sound.
Up in the air, two huge, blue-gleaming jakdu blades were dancing rrily in soone’s hands.
Agent Choi.
The jakdu stabbed down toward the ground again without hesitation.
Toward its target.
‘…That!’
“Mm. I think he’s angryy.”
As Ryu Jaekwan started to run, Lee Seonghae’s voice sounded again by his ear.
“At first, that agent seed to be trying to get the box open sohow. Like he was analyzing any gap he could find.”
Ryu Jaekwan could picture it easily.
Soone staring blankly at the box in disbelief, then racking his brain and acting to dismantle the closed box sohow.
He’d seen it so many tis. That agent who, sohow regaining calm, would attempt sothing a little reckless if needed to find a way through and save people.
“His hands were shaking, he looked in a really bad state, so I tried to help too. But thenn Director Ho started saying these really snide things.”
“…!”
– What a pity. Of all people, Roe Deer-nim was the one who went in.
– Still, it can’t be helped, right? Two people went in, so this box will be safe for the next few decades. Congratulations!
– This is the kind of situation the Disaster Managent Bureau likes, isn’t it.
“He was really awful, you know? After he was the one who pushed Mr. Employee.”
Ryu Jaekwan felt his mouth twist.
Anger and worry.
“After that, Mr. Agent took his hands off the box and pulled sothing from his coatt.”
And then…
“The door broke.”
CRASH.
Another crash bood to their side.
Dust blew all the way over to them.
“…!!”
And through the settling dust, a figure ca dimly into view.
Soone skewered by the jakdu, nailed into the ground.
“Oh, he got him.”
Director Ho.
Two massive ritual jakdu were buried in the chest of the man in a suit.
“I was staying back so I wouldn’t get in the way of him being madd, but maybe I should go help with the cleanup now and— Eh?”
Ryu Jaekwan broke into a run.
‘Don’t.’
Because he saw it.
On the dust-settled ground, ink was welling up, drawing characters.
The letters stained red and blue, forming a circular sigil.
Gongs, drums, and bells began to ring.
‘A ritual—!’
And there’s only one kind of ritual that’s conducted this way.
‘A sacrificial gut—!’
This particular gut was a shamanistic ritual known to the bureau for offering up a mighty supernatural entity.
The idea was to offer that Daydream Inc. director whole to summon a godlike being and use it to break the box…!
Anger and a sense of purpose had aligned.
‘But.’
“Agent!”
Agent Choi must not use that!
Agent Choi was sitting on the ground with his eyes closed, doing sothing.
The shape of his mouth was that of prayer.
He was clearly reciting the ritual text.
But even with his eyes closed he could hear, and the voice was one he knew very well.
“AGENT!”
Agent Choi stopped and turned his head.
His pupils dilated as their eyes t.
Surprise.
Doubt.
Joy.
Relief.
And… a surge of emotion.
“Jae—”
“Agent!!”
Ryu Jaekwan ran up and grabbed him by the collar.
“You know you’re not allowed to perform a sacrificial gut!!”
“……”
“If you do that when you don’t even have a proper na to invoke—”
“Bronze-ah.”
Two scarred hands gripped Ryu Jaekwan’s shoulders tight.
“Thank you…”
“……”
Agent Choi let go of his collar and sank into a crouch on the ground.
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