Chapter 239: Ch 239: Candidates?
Lee Seonghae is in a very good mood!
’I helped good people.’
She didn’t care that beyond the steel door lay the strange interior of an
underground bunker.
Because she had found the person she was meant to meet inside.
She reached out and pointed toward that figure.
"Mr. Employee’s right over there."
The Security Team Special Division employee, wrapped in black smoke.
The Golden Mascot.
Even now seeing that ’employee’ carrying an elderly woman in his arms,
perhaps out of care for the weak, only made her heart swell with warmth.
’As expected, he’s a good employee!’
So then, introducing him to other good people couldn’t possibly be a bad
thing.
...Whether the agents she intended to ’introduce’ him to were actually
looking at that employee with the same expression—or feeling the same
emotion—was another matter entirely.
She had always been naturally dull to other people’s feelings, and combined
with her self-centered streak, her habit of trying to do the right thing
sometimes drove her ethics and sense of justice to extremes.
Like now, which had led to this situation.
’Great.’
Lee Seonghae recalled what had happened a few days earlier, after she
captured the ghost story "Man in the Screen" onto a USB drive.
* * *
"Hm-hmm~"
On her way home from work.
She was happily heading back. Today’s exploration had ended safely, and
she planned to stop by the annex at dawn to meet ’Mr. Employee’.
So her steps were light, but then.
Bzzzzt.
Her phone buzzed.
[K.LEE: Hello assistant managerᄏᄏᄏ]
A profile picture and name that felt almost unfamiliar.
But her extraordinary memory caught up.
’The person who recommended that Salmon Market.’
It was onboarding season at the company, so her associative memory
worked faster than usual.
A mysterious KakaoTalk message introducing himself as Assistant Manager
Lee Kangheon from C-squad who frequently contacted ’promising rookies’.
[K.LEE: Long time no talk~ Heard you got
promoted?]
Lee Seonghae typed back.
[yupp]
[K.LEE: Khhh congratulations!ᄏᄏ We should meet up
i’ll buy you a meal!]
[don’t think you cann]
[K.LEE: Hey i can at least afford to treat a
fellow employeeᄏᄏ]
Really? But the thing is...
[you’re not actually a fellow employee tho?]
Because that was a lie.
And Lee Seonghae hates liars.
[there’s never even been anyone named lee kangheon
at this company so who are youu?]
This was a conclusion drawn after cross-checking the intranet and office
rumors.
A moment’s silence passed.
[K.LEE: You didnt just find that out now did you?]
She stared blankly at the phone screen.
[K.LEE: And thats not what matters is it?]
[K.LEE: What matters is this yeah? I might know
the whereabouts of Supervisor Kang Yihak who
disappeared recentlyᄒᄒ]
"Eeh."
Lee Seonghae blinked at the mention of an employee whose disappearance
she herself had once neglected.
Truthfully, Kang Yihak had long since slipped her mind. No need to care
about a ’bad person’ who’d already been disposed of.
But the mention itself was meaningful.
Because Kang Yihak hadn’t just disappeared.
[by any chance are you with the Disaster
Management Bureauu?]
After all, it was the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau that had
taken her away.
[K.LEE: Sure lets go with that?]
"Ooh."
The other party’s reaction was disarmingly casual, but by the
circumstances, it smelled like a bluff. Like a lie told to avoid getting caught.
Which is fine!
If it’s a liar, but with a good enough reason to lie, she could tolerate that!
[soo what do you want in exchange for telling me
where kang yihak-ssi is?]
[K.LEE: Wanna meet up and talk in person?]
[okiedokiee!]
If this person wasn’t really an agent, meeting in person just made it easier to
handle them.
So an hour later, Lee Seonghae was sitting in the corner of a café chain,
waiting to meet ’Lee Kangheon’.
She was the embodiment of the saying ’even a bull’s horn can get yanked
out in one go’, and everything felt natural to her.
Besides, she was in an especially good mood.
Because she’d just had a really marvelous idea.
And here.
"Nice to see youu, Mr. Agents!"
Sitting down now...
Were the very same people she’d met back then!
Two of the agents who’d been involved when she handled ’Man in the
Screen’.
’Ooooh.’
The one with a scar on his neck, and the weary-looking one who had
transported Kang Yihak.
And among them, Lee Kangheon was...
"Eeyaah, hello there, Assistant Manager."
This man.
The man with the scar on his neck smiled faintly and sat down across from
her.
Lee Seonghae immediately picked up on a few signals—that the smile was
just a habit, and in reality he was on edge, highly alert.
’Must be something important.’
"Seems like you’ve got a request for mee?"
"Ohh, and if I make a request, you’ll just accept?"
"Yup. I’ll just help youu!"
"...Whoa, really?"
The man’s smile didn’t crack, but his voice softened.
"Really! But... in return, could you do me one favor later? It’s not a bad
thing. It’s a good thing!"
"And what’s your standard for good or bad?"
"Obviously me."
Lee Seonghae grinned brightly.
"But I don’t do bad things to good people!"
A short silence passed.
"Alright!"
’Lee Kangheon’ answered cheerfully.
"But only as long as it doesn’t harm the Disaster Management Bureau."
"Of coursee!"
While the two of them kept smiling brightly at each other, the sturdy, tired-
looking agent across the table fixed his gaze on her.
"Lee Seonghae-ssi."
"Yepp?"
"If you really want to help good people, wouldn’t it be better to start by
reconsidering working for a company that harms society?"
Umm.
Lee Seonghae noticed that Lee Kangheon quickly stomped on the other
agent’s foot under the table, but she very kindly pretended not to see it.
Despite having a similar question raised to her before.
Lee Kangheon threw in a line that could be taken as either shielding her or
probing her.
"Eyy~ maybe she’s got some wish she really wants to fulfill, huh?"
"I do!"
"Knew it. But hey, listen."
His voice dropped slightly.
"When an employee uses their wish and then quits... do they ever stay in
touch? I mean ex-employees who’ve consistently kept contact after cashing
in their wish."
Hmm...
The A-squad’s leader... was still employed, so not that person.
But there were the C-squad’s leader who resigned, and three members from
the Field Exploration Team who’d left just last year after claiming their
wishes. Of those whose wishes weren’t ’grand-scale’, two still kept in touch
just fine.
"Of coursee! They’re all doing well though?"
"...Really? Then what about the ones who disappeared?"
"Ah, well there are employees who go missingg. But only when they
wished for that sort of thing."
"..."
"..."
A heavy silence sank over the table, but Lee Seonghae’s bright voice cut
through it.
"Anyway, what can I help you with?"
"...Ah, it’s nothing difficult, something you’d know already."
Lee Kangheon said it as if tossing the words out casually.
"You were there last time we met, remember? The black carrier."
"Oh, you mean Mr. Employeee?"
Strangely, the agents fell silent.
As if expecting she was about to say something shocking.
"He’s such a great personn. Kind, tries hard to help people!"
"...Ah, really?"
The man’s voice was strained.
"But I guess none of you think twice about stuffing that kind person into a
pet carrier, huh?"
"Agent."
Another agent cut in, warning him. But Lee Seonghae caught only the clean
interpretation inside that .
"Hmm. But Mr. Employee probably uses the carrier because it’s
comfortable..."
"..."
"And if he just came out, people might get scared. So it’s probably
consideration!"
"Scared, huh."
"Some people get influenced by appearances, right?"
"..."
The agent’s lips parted but then closed again.
When they opened once more, his voice had gone flat and businesslike.
"Understood. Anyway, the request is just one thing. We want access to that
carrier."
Hmm.
"Nothing complicated. Just that. If you can let us know its location when
the carrier heads to another site, that’s enough."
A fairly convincing guess popped into Lee Seonghae’s mind.
’Scouting, maybe?’
Come to think of it, the bureau said they worked with benevolent souls to
eradicate malicious darkness.
Mr. Employee really was a perfect fit.
’Hmm. Sounds good!’
Way better than being overworked and underpaid under a rotten superior
like Director Cheong.
Still, better to confirm first.
"You’re going to help Mr. Employee change jobs?"
"...Let’s say that."
"Then I’ll help youu."
"...!"
"It looked like he wasn’t even getting paid right now. He’s still at the annex,
but the conditions there seem really poor..."
"Wait."
The agent stood up.
"He’s at the annex?"
"Yesyes."
"Daydream Inc.’s annex."
"Yup. But..."
Are they seriously about to charge in right now?
Lee Seonghae smiled faintly.
"You’ll never get in there as a person, you know?"
The security system of Daydream Inc.
Darkness sneaking in or, conversely, contained Darkness breaking out
happened all the time, but infiltration from outside by intruders trying to
’steal’ Darknesses was guarded against with extreme thoroughness.
Human lives were less important to them than protecting the raw supply
chain. So, a typical vicious megacorp, so to speak?
Either way, it meant impulsive break-ins were extremely hard.
Unless you had an inside collaborator.
"Give me a bit of timee."
And Lee Seonghae was confident she could be a very good collaborator.
After all, she’d been planning to visit the annex today anyway!
So, over several days she’d kept bringing snacks (which she’d meant to gift
anyway!), listening for intel, and quietly building contact lines with the
Security Team who worked alongside ’Mr. Employee’.
The plan was simple. The moment she naturally learned through this route
when the carrier would make an outside trip, she would pass that info to the
Disaster Management Bureau agents.
The only hitch was that she hadn’t imagined that Mr. Employee would take
on work that involved diving deep into the company’s inner core.
Nor could she have guessed some chain of events would lead to Mr.
Employee to being relocated and then going missing entirely.
Internally, the record now simply said, ’Transferred for special duty under
Director Ho Yoowon’. But that hadn’t been disclosed outside.
Even the Security Team in charge of him had kept their mouths shut. They
seemed to be doing something among themselves, but...
"Hmmmm..."
At least there was one relief. Lee Seonghae had realized that Mr. Employee
was no longer inside the carrier.
’I can feel the absence.’
Sensing the presence—or now the lack thereof—of the mascot.
It was a lingering instinct from her time working as staff at the Flower
Golden Resort. The same phenomenon Agent Haegeum once described.
Either way, she passed on this deflating news to the agents, and the
agents...
[K.LEE: Gone you say]
...asked her to bring something to their next meeting if possible.
Something that could serve as a trace of Mr. Employee.
[K.LEE: A piece of the body or a fragment of
clothing he wore regularly would work]
[K.LEE: Simple belongings wont do. Not stuffed
toys or things like that]
Hair, nails, or maybe a bit of his horn.
Of course, Lee Seonghae didn’t have anything like hair. She got the sense
the other side was just fishing for any possible lead at all.
But then.
[I think I have something similar!]
Something practically part of him.
"Mascot-nim’s flower decorationn!"
It was a ’souvenir’ she’d chosen as staff pay at Cheerful Theme Park.
Lee Seonghae had boldly picked one small flower straight off the mascot’s
own horn.
Kim Soleum had been quite antsy about that, but Lee Seonghae herself
didn’t know.
I s T h a t
R e a l l y O k a y ?
She just recalled the mascot’s hesitant question and brought the flower
happily to show the agents.
The agent’s face darkened as he looked at the tiny golden wildflower.
"This is supposed to be... ’part of Mr. Employee’?"
"Yep!"
The atmosphere somehow got even stranger, but Lee Seonghae didn’t mind.
Then the agents used some uncanny, spiritual technique akin to dowsing,
and from that single keepsake, they extracted one piece of data.
Direction.
"He’s south east from heree?"
The agents seemed ready to begin tracking at once, standing up and
preparing to thank her for her cooperation.
"Umm... but that flower’s precious to me, too."
Lee Seonghae smiled and declared brightly.
"I’m coming along. I’ll take a day off!"
...And so, after several transfers and stops, Lee Seonghae finally arrived at
Jisan Village and succeeded in arranging the meeting between Mr.
Employee and the agents!
And the very first reaction of the staff upon seeing the bureau agents was...
Request : Do not move
Huh?
* * *
I hadn’t expected it to happen like this.
I just stared blankly at those faces.
Agent Choi.
Agent Bronze.
The Elder’s light flickered in the dokkaebi lantern held by Agent Choi, and
a restraining rope was neatly coiled over Agent Bronze’s shoulder.
A sight I’d seen on every deployment.
Then our eyes met. I widened my field of view and began to ease
backward... but at that exact moment.
I looked again at the black box, its two hands extending.
Right beside the exit.
’...!’
A prickle of crisis ran up the back of my head.
Request : Do not move
Reason : Box three steps to the side (extreme danger level)
’No.’
Too close...!
’If we make one wrong move, it may lock on and switch targets to follow.’
Trait of the ’Ascetic in the Box’.
It ’prefers’ to accept into its quota the side with the richer story material.
Meaning it could just as easily go after two of those three.
’They have to be gotten out safely.’
Somehow.
Should I try to scare them? I want to get Assistant Manager Eun Haje out
with them if possible, but how?
...If I deliberately draw the box’s attention—
"Grapes."
...
...!
"Let’s keep calm."
At the threshold, Agent Choi slowly set down the dokkaebi lantern, then
raised both hands.
"See? We’re not going to do anything. That’s alright, isn’t it?"
...
"Shall we communicate just by nodding? If speaking is hard, just move
your head."
I slowly nodded.
A smile touched Agent Choi’s face...
"Goodness... of all ways, you had to put it like that."
Ho Yoowon.
"It’s not that speaking is hard. It’s just that, structurally, there are no vocal
cords. Correct?"
My heart seemed to cinch in on itself.
[What an ill-mannered fellow! My friend does have vocal cords somewhere
in that body, but is simply favoring a more comfortable means of
communication at the moment!]
And.
Ho Yoowon and Agent Choi knew each other.
Moreover, that director bears a tremendous grudge against the Disaster
Management Bureau...
"The binding I placed, well. You went running off to that wheezing,
reclusive old man tucked away at that mountaintop and had it undone,
didn’t you. Truly a way of handling things that befits your organization."
"Agent Grapes."
Agent Bronze spoke.
"If a sapient entity inside a supernatural disaster is continuing to inflict
supernatural harm on a government agent, we may transfer them to the
bureau immediately."
He looked darkly at Ho Yoowon.
"With the victim’s testimony alone, it can be done at once."
Ho Yoowon’s smile deepened.
[Oh, it seems there isn’t a soul here inclined in that man’s favor. Well, who
would ever like pestilence anyway? And he is insufferable, after all.]
[So, our candidates present themselves.]
...Candidates?
[Candidates to fill the two-person quota. How about putting those two into
the box?]
[Ah, a notice of departure is sad, but it’s an essential part of running a show.
Let’s inform the two least valuable.]
[’Regrettably, you will no longer be able to continue with us’!]
Six were present here.
The fixed number is two.
[So, let’s pick two.]