Chapter 852 - Side Story - Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau (1)

"... So, have you been doing well lately?"

Kang Min-hee taps at the keyboard and talks on the phone with Seo Eun-hyun for the first time in a long while.

Because it is a welcome voice she hears after quite a long time, she relaxes her expression while concentrating on his voice.

Of course, with her main body she can meet Seo Eun-hyun anytime, but if the main body is like a face, the split body feels like a fingertip.

Even if she watches closely with the main body, it feels like she wants her fingertips to touch too.

—Yeah, lately I'm spending some time on vacation. How about you? Is grad school life bearable?

And then, Kang Min-hee suddenly notices that something about Seo Eun-hyun is strange.

"... Grad school? What are you talking about? I told you I'm a civil servant."

—Huh...?

From beyond the phone, Seo Eun-hyun's slightly flustered voice comes through.

—When did you graduate grad school and become a civil servant...?

"What are you talking about... Yeon is the one who went to grad school. I'm the civil servant."

Kang Min-hee clicks her tongue and corrects Seo Eun-hyun's misunderstanding.

Clearly, when Kim Yeon, Kang Min-hee, and Seo Eun-hyun met last time, she is sure Kim Yeon said she is doing graduate school and Kang Min-hee said she is becoming a civil servant. Did he forget even something like that?

—Ah...is that so. Sorry, lately there's been various things, so I forgot for a moment...

Kang Min-hee's loosened expression hardens.

"Is the concept of you forgetting even possible? That concept should be impossible for you."

—No, it's just that sometimes, when it's buried in the waves of memory, I get confused, or it takes time to find it...

"Sure, that can happen. But just now it didn't feel like that, did it? Taking advantage of my main body being busy, someone seems to have disturbed your mind. Yeon has no reason to do that, and I don't either...so the culprit is probably Sword Spear. You're kidnapped by Sword Spear right now, aren't you?"

—...

"It's obvious. Sword Spear distorted your mind a little by sending brainwashing waves or delirium waves, to kidnap you comfortably. If it's the main body, or at least if the main body is fine, there's no way that would work, but since you're extremely busy in Mount Sumeru because of the new fates, that kind of trick seems to work. Even if it's the split body, with Sword Spear's skill, it's impossible to kidnap you without a sound or rumor, so she probably did that kind of thing."

—Th-Then...does that mean even what happened a few days ago, when I got obsessed with 'PUSH' and 'PULL,' too!?

"...?"

From beyond the phone, Ji Hwa's sulky voice is heard as well.

—Sorry, but my hypnosis waves are based on Oh Hye-seo's ability to make the truth diverge a little. It isn't an ability that makes you get furiously angry at a perfectly normal 'PULL' sign. The reason you got angry at the 'PULL' sign and pushed the door is just because the main body is busy, so a flaw formed in your personality.

—A flaw!? How is that a flaw!?

Hearing Seo Eun-hyun and Sword Spear bickering over the phone, Kang Min-hee clicks her tongue.

"Ah, Seo Eun-hyun, did you do something weird again after seeing a 'PULL' sign? Please don't just push. Pull too."

—How can a proud son of Korea!!??

"Hah...don't teach Sword Spear weird things. Isn't it because you keep doing that kind of thing that she walks around on Earth wearing an aluminum hat?"

—To block the conspiracy of the evil Lizard Race, there was no other choice. Since it's come up, Kang Min-hee, you too make sure to wear an aluminum hat. Even among civil servants, Lizards in disguise might spew brainwashing waves at any moment!

"... Anyway, right now Yeon is in a state where her venom is rising because Seo Eun-hyun disappeared, so just make sure you don't get caught..."

—Hmph, anyway that one is probably rubbing around in Mount Sumeru with the main body, so why should I watch for her mood!? Right now I'm so bored I could die, even with my main body!

"Then you can come to Mount Sumeru with the main body and work too."

After chattering and squabbling on the phone with Sword Spear and Seo Eun-hyun for a while, Kang Min-hee sees her subordinates come to deliver a report and starts to end the call.

"Ah, I have to start work now. I'm hanging up. And Sword Spear, you should be careful, you know? It looks like you've received a bit too much of a loan recently, and the place you got the loan from...ah, anyway, be careful on your own. Then I'm hanging up!"

—Wait, what do you mean, be careful!? Could it be that the place I got the loan from was under the Lizard Race...?

Tak!

"... I said there's no Reptilians, and she keeps doing this..."

Kang Min-hee sighs and looks at the box her subordinates bring.

"... Where does this come from?"

"Yes, reporting to Director. It's an artifact sealed at Cheondong-san, where an anomalous phenomenon occurred recently. H-3042. Commonly called [Telephone That Connects To The Underworld]."

Inside the box, an extremely old-looking public payphone is placed, and a faint smell of blood drifts out.

"Casualties?"

"About three agents could not withstand the temptation and attempted calls with dead acquaintances, and at some point they disappeared. Besides that, the entire squad that accompanied them and participated in the sealing is continuously feeling temptation, and there are even those who go wild with the desire to use the phone, so...we put restraint suits on the entire squad and temporarily isolated them."

"Hah...okay. Since I'm going to take measures for damage recovery, you two step out for a moment."

"Yes, understood!"

At Kang Min-hee's words, the two agents step out of the room marked 'Director's Office' and close the door.

Agent Kim Runi wipes away cold sweat and pants for breath.

"Phew...today's work is finally over."

Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau.

It is a secret agency newly established by the state to stop the bizarre incidents that have recently been happening across the country, and the agents here control, isolate, and seal strange and abnormal phenomena all across the nation.

And the agents who enter this Abnormal Phenomena Management Bureau have to follow several rules.

First, the anomalous-phenomenon sealed bodies brought into the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau, that is, the 'artifacts', must be shown first to a woman called 'Abnormal Phenomena Management Bureau Director Kang Min-hee'. The being called Kang Min-hee is a being who, when she sees artifacts, can judge what kind of existence it is and what level of danger the artifacts have, and can restore to their original state the victims harmed by the artifacts.

Second, the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau is operated through an organization called the Management Council, not the Director, and in fact, the position called Director does not officially exist anywhere. However, you must absolutely not find that strange, and you must not try to learn about the being called Kang Min-hee. No matter what she is doing in the Director's Office, until she shows a reaction first, you must not pay attention to her.

Third, after Kang Min-hee receives an artifact, she returns the victims who suffered from anomalous phenomena through a measure called 'damage recovery' inside the Director's Office, and at that time you must never enter the Director's Office, and you must not look inside the Director's Office either. In particular, depending on the danger level of the artifact that contains the sealed anomalous phenomenon, bizarre sounds come from inside, and until the Director's Office door opens first, you must unconditionally wait in front of the Director's Office while looking toward the opposite side.

Kkiyaaaaaaaagh!

Kuaaaaaaagh!!!!

Sa@ve@ me@!!!

I didn't@ kno@w!!!

This@person@in@this@land!!!

Kuaaaaaaaagh.

Hekuaaaaaagh!!!

Kkiyaaaaaaagh!

The two agents tremble at the dreadful screaming, the stench of blood, and the ghostly wailing and sobbing that come from the Director's Office.

After a while,

Click—

The Director's Office door opens, and Kang Min-hee hands the box to the two agents.

From the phone inside the box, the smell of blood no longer comes out, and it looks like an ordinary phone.

"Take it to the containment facility and isolate it. There won't be the same temptation as before, but it's still connected to an alternate space, so don't make calls for no reason. The missing victims will be back if you go to [Ward]. Since they saw something a little bad in the process of 'damage recovery,' absolutely do not bring up or ask them about [me]. If you do, they might recall something bad and their minds could collapse. Do it like that for at least a month. Then go."

"Yes, then we will isolate the artifacts now!"

The agents accept the box from Kang Min-hee, turn around, and leave the Director's Office.

Now, they are getting off work.

The Bureau's work hours are on the short side, you see.

At that moment, suddenly, a handkerchief falls out of one agent's pocket, and as they pick up the handkerchief, they 'turn back' and look toward the Director's Office.

The agent swallows their saliva.

The entrance to the 'Director's Office' that has been behind them until just a moment ago is gone.

At that strange phenomenon, the agents say nothing and only move the box to the containment facility that isolates the artifacts.

The strangest and most powerful anomalous phenomenon in the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau.

They think it is Kang Min-hee.

* * *

"Ah, damn, my hands got dirty..."

Kang Min-hee wipes her hands with a tissue and recalls the existence she just handled.

It wasn't really a phone that connects to the Underworld, and it was just an oddity that calls people in and imprisons them in a small alternate at the level of a 'Pseudo-Netherworld'.

What Kang Min-hee did was flip over that 'Pseudo-Netherworld,' transported the people inside it to a space inside the Bureau called [Ward], and then drew out the will that has been dwelling in the 'Pseudo-Netherworld'.

"Say something. Where do you come from?"

Kang Min-hee taps the head of the doll containing the will she just pulled out.

It is a duck doll.

The duck doll gulps down fear at Kang Min-hee's presence and sheds tears of blood.

-Ex@alted being! S@ve@me!!! @uck!!!

"What 'foot'? Do you want to die?"

[TL/N: It’s a pun. Fuck in Korean is Shibal and Bal (@bal) can mean foot.]

—Hiii@iiik!

"I'm asking where you came from. Just answer me. Ah, damn, don't cry blood! I just wiped that place!!!"

Kang Min-hee sees the duck doll that seals the will of a small Netherworld shed tears of blood, so she punches it a few times and changes it into shedding clear tears.

"Tell me clearly where you came from. I'm getting angry."

—I c@me f@om the wo@ld of darkness.

"Ah, is it there again...?"

Kang Min-hee lets out a sigh.

The decisive battle with the Future King Fate Supreme Deity.

At that time, the Future King, through the move called 'Upper Heaven Future King,' tore apart the surrounding worlds and Creator Gods to pieces, killing them and shattering their worlds.

And among the worlds Future King smashed, Earth was included as well.

Seo Eun-hyun restored the worlds back to normal by using the power of Omnipotence with Requiem Filling the Heavens, but...

Because of mischievous Creator Gods, or because of an astonishing coincidence, there were also cases where fragments of worlds mixed into other worlds and flowed in.

Of course, before long, by the restorative power of the worlds, the beings of worlds that flowed in will inevitably return to their own worlds again, and the original worlds will also try to retrieve the fragments that broke off, but...

That 'before long' period is only 'before long' by the standard of the undying, so by the standards of mortals, it is something that will only get resolved after thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of millions of years or more pass.

She asked Seo Eun-hyun and Bong Hwa whether they are not going to resolve things like this, but the two divinities seem to think it is more concerning that Mount Sumeru has a hole and to block it with the new fates, and since both of them came to hold half the mind of a Creator God, they think that much of a duration will pass quickly, so they seem to take it comfortably.

Of course, Kang Min-hee is also an Immortal Lord-rank existence, so she knows that this is not such a serious matter, that the divinities or transcendents of each world can more than sufficiently resolve it, that even if you leave it alone it is not something that takes that long to return to normal, and that Seo Eun-hyun has done everything he needs to do just by spending the power of Omnipotence to restore the shattered worlds.

'But the problem is Earth.'

However, it is a problem that beings from other worlds flowed into the dimension where Earth exists, the homeland of Kang Min-hee and the other comrades, and are causing anomalous phenomena.

Seo Eun-hyun said, "Even if we leave it alone, the truly strong ones will watch our mood, so they will suppress the weak ones on their own," and Kim Young-hoon said, "It sounds rather fun," and Jeon Myeong-hoon only said something strange like, "Is the era of Hunters arriving?" but Kang Min-hee doesn't like the current situation where something like crumbs have fallen in front of her house.

"At least I should clean up the trash. What else can I do?"

Of course, only Korea, which is her front yard, is within her jurisdiction, and in the case of other countries, just as Seo Eun-hyun said, the bizarre things that sense the presence of their group and read the atmosphere suppress other bizarre things on their own, so a great upheaval hasn't happened worldwide.

Maybe she could have left Korea alone too, but...

By temperament, Kang Min-hee cannot stay still.

Just then,

Wiiing—

Some materials are transmitted by fax to Kang Min-hee's Director's Office.

"Is it sent from the Anomalous Phenomena Management Council?"

Usually, Kang Min-hee's duty is to hole up in the Director's Office, purify 'artifacts,' and rescue victims, but at times other missions also come down.

In the case of an anomalous phenomenon that are too strong for the agents of the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau to handle,

The Anomalous Phenomena Management Council requests Kang Min-hee and sends her out to suppress the anomalous phenomenon.

"Mm... 'Wonmi-dong Psychiatric Hospital,' huh...? Is this also something that crossed over from the world of darkness? Or another dimension...? Anyway, hospital-type anomalous phenomena are all strong, so it must have been hard to deal with at the agent level."

Kang Min-hee throws on a coat, kicks the duck doll that said it came from the world of darkness and sends it back across dimensions to its homeland, and then steps out of the Director's Office.

"It's been a while since I've had a business trip. Today, after I come back, I should eat something expensive..."

Holding the file containing the materials about 'Wonmi-dong Psychiatric Hospital,' she leaves for a business trip to Wonmi-dong.