Chapter 250: Ch 250: Flickering flame
When the Daydream folks suddenly recommended ’Section Chief Lizard’
from another company, the civil servant agents who were busy grilling
prime beef were so dumbfounded they couldn’t even chew.
"Bronze, are we... being told to bring in an employee of Daydream Inc. as
someone it’d be good for us to work with?"
Naturally, Daydream Inc’s D-squad alums were resolute.
Affirmative
"C’mon, more than half the current party already came from Daydream.
What’s so shocking? It’s a normal workplace like any other."
Granted, what I’m recommending isn’t a human being but an alien reptile...
"Our section chief really is a solid guy. Strong and straightforward, perfect
to work with."
"To have a strong personality yet coming from that company..."
"No, that’s not it, Sir Highborn Geezer."
"...?"
Assistant Manager Eun Haje solemnly waved a hand.
"I mean literally strong. Just plain strong."
Confirmed
Agent Bronze looked even more confused, but both I and Assistant
Manager Eun Haje nodded as if on cue.
Then the assistant manager’s gaze shifted.
"But this guy isn’t surprised."
"Eyy, I was surprised too."
Still, Agent Choi didn’t seem all that shocked, just bantering. And I think I
know why.
The other identity Agent Choi used.
’Lee Kangheon.’
– K.LEE : ur not a cousin of section chief lee
jaheon are you?;; uve got the same attitude...
I distinctly remembered him sending that message while recommending
Salmon Market.
’Which means Agent Choi already knew what kind of person Section Chief
Lee Jaheon is.’
No, more than that. It implies he’s mapped Daydream employees’
messenger profiles and has a rough read on their personalities and
movements.
...There was nothing about that in the wiki.
’No way he infiltrated Daydream, right.’
Agent Choi can’t be in two places at once. He couldn’t be doing the
grueling agent job and also clocking in at Daydream. And inside the
company there is no C-squad Assistant Manager ’Lee Kangheon’.
So I extended smoke under the table and subtly caught Agent Choi’s eye.
"Hm?"
Then I asked.
Question : Lee Kangheon’s identity
"..."
I immediately erased the letters before anyone else at the table could see.
Agent Choi smiled.
"Hey now, you can’t be prying into a sunbae’s trade secrets."
...
Fair enough.
If that identity exists to siphon Daydream intel, he can’t exactly disclose it
to someone who still technically works there...
– Still, want me to tell you if you’re that curious?
...!
Agent Choi traced quick letters with a finger into the little cloud of smoke
pooled under the table.
– But you have to keep it secret haha i can trust you right grapes?
I formed the word ’Affirmative’.
Grinning, Agent Choi continued.
– Lee kangheon is a real person.
– A Daydream retiree.
...!
– And, well now one day a certain ace agent at the bureau happened to
acquire lee kangheon’s messenger account haha
He didn’t say how he got it.
He did add a note about the account.
– He had tons of group chats he never left.
Batch chats, short-term project rooms, anonymous info-sharing rooms, and
even in-house gambling chats.
All excellent places to harvest intel. And with Agent Choi’s skill, he surely
slipped into the various new spinoff chats too.
By scraping profiles one by one... he would even have kept up with the
newly hired rookies’ profiles.
I recalled Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae’s testimony that ’Assistant
Manager Lee Kangheon of the C-squad’ had introduced her to Salmon
Market. And then...
– I also heard all the rumors about one kim soleum, the elite top rookie who
doesn’t bat an eye at exploring ghost stories lolololol
...
So he knew from the very beginning...
– That’s about it.
Request : More detail
– Grapes-ie really has no shame...
– Still, if our youngest wants it, i should share more! come ask me the day
you cut ties with Daydream and I’ll just spill everything lolol
In other words, he wouldn’t tell me.
With that, Agent Choi turned his attention back to the table as if there had
never been any under-the-table scribbling.
I swallowed a sigh.
’...Is this why he believed even less in Wish Tickets?’
There are so-called retirees who vanish leaving only an account behind, and
he’s personally used one such account.
In any case, I hadn’t expected my curiosity to be satisfied like this. I was a
bit stunned.
’I didn’t think he’d answer.’
Of course, the ’I trust you’ line was obviously a lie. He’d cut off the details
from the start.
After years of use, the ’Lee Kangheon’ name was probably getting such a
reputation that it was no longer being invited into new group chats, so he
likely planned to retire it anyway.
He surely has other intel-gathering routes.
’Still, I’m grateful...’
While I was collecting my thoughts, light jokes popped around the table.
"Ee-yah. Section Chief Lizard, huh. Makes me wonder how strong he is.
Does he, like, chew rebar?"
"If he had to, he seems like the type who would, yeah."
"...??"
Assistant Manager Eun Haje shrugged as she asked a part-timer to swap our
grill.
"Anyway, much as Roe says it’d be great if our section chief helped too,
but... it’s tough to arrange while still working a day job."
...
And in truth, that wasn’t the only problem.
News I heard from the Space Shopping Mall when I bought the evil-
warding pollock talisman.
Which was, in effect, saying that Section Chief Lee Jaheon couldn’t get out
of some Darkness.
’He said it was a boarding-school ghost story.’
So since I’d already decided I was going to look for Section Chief Lee
Jaheon anyway, I really did want to confirm it somehow. It didn’t sound
like anything simple.
After Agent Haegeum got me back to my senses, I even started feeling a bit
anxious.
– That entity is currently at a boarding school.
’I was going to ask Baek Saheon so I could pin down exactly which
Darkness it is.’
But there’s a bigger obstacle right here.
Namely... my condition.
Concern :
Daydream Inc. (Ltd.) summons for 130666’s return to duty
"...!"
In truth, the announcement ordering me to return was still blaring in my
head.
Thanks to that great jade bell, which was the likely source of the small jade
bells, I managed to come back to my senses, but I had no idea how long I
could keep putting off the summons order on my own...
And that wasn’t all.
’...Re-entering Sekwang City is the same problem.’
I don’t know how.
If I try the well again, there’s a high chance the Disaster Management
Bureau will realize something’s off. Once might pass as recklessness during
a dispatch mission, but if it’s repeated, the intent becomes obvious.
And even if I use that route...
’...Can I take these people with me?’
No matter how many times you go through it, dying never gets easier, and
this time it came with severe contamination. On top of that, most of the
group must have had their near-death trauma from other ghost stories
freshly triggered...
...So yeah.
’Maybe I should do this alone.’
I’m not in a human state. I’ll surely suffer fewer post-contamination
aftereffects than the others...
I was the one who shoved Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae into the train to
begin with. If she still can’t get out, the question of who bore the decisive
responsibility is pretty clear.
So... right.
That would be better.
"...Yeah. In a lot of ways, this is the company’s fault."
Assistant Manager Eun Haje, who couldn’t know what I was thinking,
patted my back as she said this.
Then, noticing the part-timer coming over to change the grill, she leaned
back and muttered jokingly,
"Man, maybe I should just tell Director Ho."
"I think I can help with that."
"...!"
At some point.
The part-timer who’d been serving our table smiled and sat down at our
spot.
Only then did the face come into focus. A pleasant-looking young man,
smiling.
...Director Ho.
’What the hell.’
He’d slipped in so smoothly I couldn’t tell when he’d gotten here.
That pleasant-looking young man’s face swept over us.
"Everyone. Congratulations."
"..."
"You went there, didn’t you?"
Sekwang Special Metropolitan City.
His lips formed the words while his expression was the very picture of
calm, yet I caught the strange mania overflowing in his eyes.
"How was it? You entered a special, secret place no one else can perceive.
Was it fun, or tense? Or was it agonizing because you were in a situation
where you couldn’t say anything to your own organizations?"
"..."
"I hope you’ll speak freely."
I realized that, although the agents looked frozen with tension, they were
actually scanning the surroundings and checking their gear.
This is a restaurant packed with civilians...
"Don’t worry. Everyone else here will be fine."
"...!"
"I don’t like causing scenes, and I don’t casually bear malice toward
others."
"Oh..."
Agent Choi bared his teeth in a tight smile.
"And a person like that suddenly shoves others into a supernatural disaster
where they’ll suffer and die?"
"I’ve already explained that part."
Ho Yoowon said it gently.
"The Disaster Management Bureau can handle it, right?"
It was a rational-sounding kind of madness, chilling in its way.
Holding individuals within a group responsible for the group’s grievances :
Illogical
"Hm? You’re saying something odd... Emotions aren’t logical by nature,
130666-nim."
Huu.
Recommendation : Alternative forms of address for 130666
► Roe Deer
► Grapes
Grapes.
As he read the agent name, something—anger, or some twist of feeling—
flickered across Ho Yoowon’s eyes, but it was smoothed away without a
trace.
"Haha, you like unofficial forms of address, Mr. Roe Deer."
I picked up something out of place in him.
Impatience.
Swallowing his anger because he wanted to move the conversation along
quickly.
"Hold on a moment."
Agent Bronze spoke up.
"You knew, didn’t you?"
"Knew what?"
"That the well could connect to a specific area. Was that your goal from the
beginning?"
"And if it was?"
"..."
"If it was, then that’s even better, isn’t it? It means our objectives align."
Clap.
Ho Yoowon smiled and brought his hands together.
"I’ll spare no support to help you bring back Assistant Manager Lee
Seonghae."
"...!"
"Think about it."
A voice so gentle it felt crafty.
"Will the Disaster Management Bureau really spend that kind of time and
resources? Pull already overworked field agents for it?"
"..."
"If it were me, I could help you no matter what..."
The air around the table wavered.
"And I’m not asking for much in return. Just a modest favor, to find one
thing for me in Sekwang Special Metropolitan City—"
"Oh~ Then why don’t you do it yourself?"
"..."
"You know the route. If it’s so modest, you could just go in and do it. Hard
to see why you’re flapping your lips here."
In Agent Choi’s voice, a stab of anger cut through his forced cheer.
"Could it be... you can’t go in?"
"..."
"That’s it, isn’t it."
We realize it in the silence.
That’s the truth.
For reasons unknown, there’s a high probability Ho Yoowon can’t enter
Sekwang Special City.
Which is why he keeps roping employees into the project, and why even
now he’s using Assistant Manager Eun Haje.
"That’s right. Unfortunately, I cannot go in there."
But without a flicker of agitation, Ho Yoowon put on a deeply crestfallen
face.
"Doesn’t that make me more trustworthy? Since I can’t go in myself, I
support every action taken to attempt an exploration of Sekwang Special
Metropolitan City. It all adds up, doesn’t it?"
In that case.
Proposal :
Trust-guarantee binding (Target : Ho Yoowon)
"...!"
"Oh, Grapes has a good suggestion."
Ho Yoowon’s eyes turned to me.
"Right. You’re not the sort to slap bindings on others while wriggling out of
them yourself like some spineless creep, are you~"
A heavy silence fell.
Then.
"Sure."
"...!"
"Shall we make it a mutual binding? Let’s set it up so neither side can
betray the other until the exploration of Sekwang Special Metropolitan City
is over."
Smiling, Ho Yoowon laid a hand on the table.
"Shall we do it now?"
"..."
"Looks like you need to prepare. Alright. I can certainly wait..."
He rose from the table.
"But thinking of the person you’re trying to rescue, we should move
quickly. No one knows how long she can hold out, or in what state she’d be
in."
"..."
"You can contact me through Assistant Manager Eun Haje. Then."
And when we looked back...
It wasn’t Ho Yoowon anymore. Just a regular part-timer was carrying the
grill plate back to the kitchen.
"..."
"...Huu."
"Hard to ruin the taste of hanwoo, but he pulled it off. Just proves upper
management shouldn’t join team dinners, huh."
"Haha..."
That night.
With everyone sunk in thought and mulling things over at the table, the
dinner ended.
With an unbelievable backer now on the table.
* * *
’Huu.’
After the team dinner.
As the others returned to their respective quarters, I too was escorted back
to the secured space for supernatural entities in the main building where I’d
been staying.
’Honestly, I’m surprised they let me out at all...’
They probably assigned agents, kept things safe, and used it as a test run to
see how stable I am.
And this time, I passed.
’Thank goodness.’
In truth, after Agent Haegeum helped me come to my senses, the extreme
isolation eased a lot.
This place isn’t just a simple room, hm... more like a small isolation space
projecting some outdoor wooden veranda. It seems to be a facility meant to
stabilize a supernatural being’s mind.
’I haven’t even properly paid taxes yet...’
I felt oddly sorry, like I was freeloading off the facilities.
And after going through several jade beads, I had this weird guilt that I
ought to earn my keep.
Of course someone would say that kind of nonsense...
But right now...
’...’
Nothing.
’Has it already been about two weeks?’
Since I stopped hearing Braun’s voice.
Like when I was working on Basement Floor 13 of Daydream’s annex, in
the 130666 state I couldn’t perceive Braun’s voice at all.
’But once I came to, I thought I’d hear him again soon.’
For some reason, I still can’t hear him.
And the merchandise—no, the substitute plush—was collected by the
Disaster Management Bureau and I haven’t gotten it back.
’...If I wait, will he speak, I wonder.’
[Feeling guilty over receiving such a trifling space, goodness. My friend is
almost too modest for his own good...]
Last time, too, there was a delay between me regaining my wits and hearing
Braun’s voice, so for now I’m waiting. Or maybe the over-invested Braun can only speak when the merchandise is
present.
’I hope it’s the former.’
Just as I was thinking that—
Jingle, jingle...
’...!’
A wind chime.
It means there’s a visitor to this isolation space.
From what I’ve experienced these past few days, it’s usually today’s duty officer standing beyond the sliding door, conversing at a safe distance and noting my condition...
Today, a peculiar guest came along.
"The Elder of Black-Tortoise Team 1 requested this... Would you like to take a look?"
Inside the small lantern the officer was holding...
A small dokkaebi flame likewise poked its head out.
’...!’
The dokkaebi flame that had once been my arm flickered.