Chapter 242: Ch 242: A formal designation
Outside the Church of the Luminous Unknown’s underground bunker.
Jisan Village, empty of people, was already half-destroyed.
The moment 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 come 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 something twisting the Ascetic in the Box, which had been
babbling strange sounds, in a brutally mechanical 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 tremendous crash rang out.
Ryu Jaekwan jerked his head toward the sound.
Up in the air, two huge, blue-gleaming jakdu blades were dancing merrily
in someone’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 seemed to be trying to get the box open somehow. Like
he was analyzing any gap he could find."
Ryu Jaekwan could picture it easily.
Someone staring blankly at the box in disbelief, then racking his brain and
acting to dismantle the closed box somehow.
He’d seen it so many times. That agent who, somehow regaining calm,
would attempt something 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."
"...!"
"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 something
from his coatt."
And then...
"The door broke."
CRASH.
– 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 Management Bureau likes, isn’t
it.
Another crash boomed to their side.
Dust blew all the way over to them.
"...!!"
And through the settling dust, a figure came dimly into view.
Someone 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
something.
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 met.
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 name 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.
Seeing him pant for breath, Ryu Jaekwan, realizing how taut and cornered
he’d been, felt a rush of mixed emotion.
How a senior feels when he realizes that every member of his field team,
except himself, was swallowed by a supernatural disaster in the blink of an
eye and will be tortured for decades before dying.
At the same time, he choked up.
’That guy...!’
That guy who’s always the one to try the most dangerous thing alone!
Still, the lump in his throat subsided quickly.
After all, both he and Agent Grapes had made it out in one piece.
Instead, he fixed on the small bead hanging at Agent Choi’s waist.
Someone was already inside that makeshift glass prison.
The one who’d introduced themself as a reporter back in Jisan Village.
An employee who goes by the odd name ’Ms. Falcon’.
"...Did you put her in there on purpose?"
"Yeah. She was dragged into this for nothing, so I did this for now so a
civilian like her wouldn’t get hurt."
Without saying it outright, he implied she’d been cooperative. Agent Choi
finally cracked a grin and stood.
And Ryu Jaekwan managed just one line.
"From now on, please, please stop doing reckless things."
"Haha..."
No answer came from Agent Choi.
"Heavens, how touching."
The supernatural disaster pinned by two ritual jakdu.
Daydream Inc.’s Director Ho.
He was smiling.
He didn’t so much as frown at being skewered, didn’t let out a single pained
groan.
Instead, he calmly raised both hands and set them on the surface of the
massive jakdu blades that had nearly cleaved his chest in two.
Even as the sizzle of burning flesh sounded, those smiling eyes didn’t
change.
’...Truly.’
To the point you had to wonder if he was restrained at all.
"By the way, will you return our company employee now? You’ve been
holding on to him."
"...!"
Ryu Jaekwan stepped back at once.
Agent Choi’s eyes went cold beside him.
His habitual smile disappeared completely.
Feigning the gesture of covering his own mouth with a hand, he bent down
toward the fallen ’Kim Soleum’ and nodded, as if listening to something
coming from him.
"What’s that, Grapes-ie? Mm-hm, good idea."
Then he looked back at the fox plague impaled by the jakdu and smiled.
"Grapes says he’s resigning."
"Is that so? If he says so himself, nothing we can do. Would you wake him
up?"
"No."
Blue sparks jumped in Agent Choi’s eyes.
"Why wake a sleeping kid. We’ll take good care of him, and you go get
some rest in prison."
He looked around at his colleague.
"Right? Bronze..."
"..."
But Ryu Jaekwan did not concur.
Agent Choi caught the subtle look.
And, relieved past the point of sense, a question he’d put off flared up. One
needed to grasp the situation.
How, exactly, did they get out of the box?
"Bronze."
Why is it that, though he came out the same, Kim Soleum still hasn’t come
to in all this chaos?
"Oh dear... looks like he won’t wake up."
"..."
"Shall I try?"
"Shut up."
"Employee 130666, it’s time to wake up and stand by for duty."
At that moment/
130666 rose.
Black smoke.
It billowed thick between the black uniform, lantern-yellow light flashing, a
strange presence pressing heavy on the dust-caked ground.
The horned thing stood motionless, coat hanging, casting a black shadow.
’...’
Something was wrong.
’This is.’
Different from before.
A moment ago, even with the clearly inhuman silhouette, there had been
something you could feel.
An air in its bearing and responses.
Things that made them call him ’Grapes’ without hesitation the moment
they saw him.
But now...
Something forced into a human silhouette.
A prickle up the spine, an agent’s inductive instinct.
’A supernatural phenomenon.’
Even so, his mouth moved.
"...Grapes?"
The smoke turned first.
Gaslight flared over the dusky black pooling underfoot.
A gaze from beneath the horns.
Inappropriate form of address
Reason : Unofficial
"..."
Agent Choi was at a loss for words. His lips worked a few times before he
finished a sentence.
"Then... what should I call you?"
No official title
Recommendation : Registration number 130666
"...Call you by a number? Are you—"
"Wait."
Ryu Jaekwan cut in urgently.
"Agent Grapes. What’s your current condition? Is the pain ongoing, or are
you still hearing any strange whispering?"
The smoke did not move.
The black-clad employee of the Special Division stood still, then after a few
seconds displayed letters.
Unable to confirm
"..."
"Oh dear."
Ho Yoowon’s laughter sounded.
"Looks like it’s not the state you were expecting?"
"You...!"
"Employee 130666. Since a company executive is restrained, would you
pull these out?"
Black smoke surged at the jakdu.
"...!"
Clang.
The ritual jakdu blades wrenched free and fell, striking the ground with a
clear, hard ring.
As Ho Yoowon, now freed, began to rise, Agent Choi started forward and
tried to pull another means of restraint...
But the smoke barred him.
"...!"
Warning : Security-risk act
On repeated attempt, containment level shall be adjusted
"..."
Danger.
The nape prickled, like facing something truly dangerous.
"...You,"
His trembling eyes saw something corrupt beyond the smoke.
"What did you do."
"Nothing."
Ho Yoowon spoke in a tone of feigned regret.
"Seems the box left an ill effect. Don’t you think?"
"The box? Sounds like something you or your cult company did."
"Who knows."
A laugh.
"But here’s the thing. I’ve no intention of answering... so you can keep
wondering."
"..."
Agent Choi drew the jakdu back.
Watching the being he had once worked alongside, squared off against
him...
"One thing I do know for certain."
The jakdu pointed at the malign presence beyond the smoke.
The Black-Tortoise Team 1 agent pronounced.
"Daydream Inc.’s Director Ho Yoowon is a supernatural disaster."
A formal designation.