– Did the visits go well?
“…Yes.”
Ryu Jaekwan sat in the hospital ward and looked at his superior.
Showing the fastest recovery of anyone, he’d barely gotten approval for visitation after a few days and was going around seeing people.
Thanks to that, he’d just co from visiting Falcon—the person he now learned was nad Eun Haje—fresh out of ergency treatnt.
And he learned she could polish off an LA galbi lunchbox one-handed.
For soone sweating cold and complaining of a constant strangling ache in the neck, it was an impressive attitude.
His superior in front of him, Agent Choi, was the sa.
“Sa statents all around. It seems what we went through… is best treated as a ‘dream’.”
– OK haha
His superior was exhibiting contamination symptoms beyond PTSD, to the point that he couldn’t even hold a spoken conversation. His neck was covered with cloth so no one could look at it at all.
And yet, even lying in bed under a strict bed-rest order, his eyes flashed so sharply it was as if you could hear his brain whirring, forever scheming.
Thanks to that, the mont the two of them realized they had experienced the incident as a dream, they even managed to track down a certain ghost story.
– Jaekwan-ie do you rember sekwang technical high school?
Who would have thought that one would be a ghost story connected to an even larger, annihilation-sanctioned ghost story.
‘And the chanism was the sa.’
Entry was only possible through a dream.
Of course, from the start the two agents had had a chilly hunch that the Daydream employees Kim Soleum and Eun Haje were telling the truth about Sekwang City.
But they had kept up a healthy suspicion that it might be false. But seeing how things stood now, it seed all too likely to be true… which was the problem.
Sekwang Special tropolitan City, recognition of which—erased. The existence of that sealed, annihilation-sanctioned disaster zone.
…A place you enter in a dream, and yet the contamination you suffer on ‘death’ in that place is off the charts.
‘Huu…’
Worse, the superior before him wasn’t even the worst off among them.
Even setting aside those still unconscious.
…Just now, uncharacteristically hesitating a mont, the superior had asked in writing.
– How’s grapes
“……”
Ryu Jaekwan’s expression dimd slightly.
As if the intact human form they’d seen in Sekwang City had been a lie, Kim Soleum…
– It appears that entity will have to be transferred elsewhere.
…was formally classified as a full-fledged supernatural disaster.
Attempts at communication by Disaster Managent Bureau personnel were going nowhere. The entity simply kept repeating requests to be returned to Daydream Inc.
It had not yet shown aggression, but if the return request continued to be delayed, there was no telling what might happen. That was the bureau’s present assessnt.
– You did try purification on the basis that he was originally human right?
“…Yes.”
Ryu Jaekwan’s voice dropped.
“They say only so anxiety symptoms improved. Otherwise, there’s been no progress.”
“……”
None of the contamination-removal thods the bureau runs at headquarters worked to strip the supernatural influence from Kim Soleum and restore him to human.
…For three days, truly nothing.
Leaving Agent Choi’s room and stepping into the corridor, Ryu Jaekwan’s thoughts sank, taut with anxiety.
‘If so…’
…Maybe it was ti he really said it.
That this bizarre entity had originally been Agent Grapes.
It wasn’t rely a matter of bad timing that he hadn’t reported it until now, it was more that he’d considered Kim Soleum’s complicated position.
Daydream Inc. had turned a forr employee, whom they had ordered to infiltrate the bureau as an agent, into a supernatural being and was still using him as staff.
The mont he reported that, word would inevitably travel up the chain.
‘And then… who knows how Agent Grapes’ treatnt would change.’
The bureau had grown used to choosing the lesser evil.
Like sifting out the wicked.
“……”
But as things stood, even that might be necessary…
They needed far more intensive, specialized purification.
‘Maybe I should’ve said sothing from the start.’
It might have been the right thing even for the bureau’s greater good. As Ryu Jaekwan’s thoughts tangled and mixed with the noose’s phantom whispers…
“Oh, Ryu Jaekwan-ie. Visiting?”
“…!”
A tall middle-aged woman walking down the hall waved.
Ryu Jaekwan’s eyes widened.
“Agent Haegeum.”
Team leader of Black-Tortoise Team 3.
The agent wearing the Four-Tiger Evil-Slaying Sword looked tired, as if just back from a deploynt, but still flashed a vigorous grin.
“I heard about it anyway. Tried to use the well and it blew up on you, huh?”
“……”
“There’s always a ton of trouble whenever Choi-ssi’s involved. With you, too.”
This case was a little different, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny it…
“I also heard Daydream employees were involved. That right?”
“…Yes, ma’am.”
“Hm.”
She tossed off her next words.
“Among them was a face I know.”
“Pardon?”
“Well, maybe ‘know the face’ isn’t quite right… since he’s wearing a gas mask.”
“…!!”
“Yeah. The one with horns and smoke seeping from the gas mask. He’s security staff on their side. Looks like Daydream finally figured out how to handle a supernatural disaster.”
But how does she know that.
Just as Ryu Jaekwan’s thoughts began to cloud again.
Agent Haegeum rolled her shoulder.
“I should go see him.”
“Why…”
“Because I’ve got sothing to give him.”
And from that point, astonishing things began to happen.
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