Chapter 855 - Side Story - Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau (4)

Agent Kim Runi of the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau feels goosebumps rising.

"The ward...did it always feel like this?"

The Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau's [ward].

It is a kind of treatment center for victims who get caught up in anomalous phenomena, meant to help them restore body and mind after 'damage recovery measures' and to break free from the aftereffects of anomalous phenomena.

But though it is called a treatment center, in reality it confines for a time those who went insane after experiencing anomalous phenomena or who have aftereffects of anomalous phenomena so they cannot go madly rampaging, and slowly erases their memories of the phenomena through hypnosis and the like so they can return to society...

It is essentially no different from a kind of 'concentration camp'.

Because of that, the ward was originally built with the gloomy feeling of an ominous detention facility itself, but...

"Hello, this is the Medical Administration Department of the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau Ward. What brings you here?"

"Ah...yes. I am Agent Kim Runi, affiliated with the Bureau. Um...among the victims of this incident, I have a younger sibling. I came to see whether her condition is okay."

"Your sibling's name?"

"Kim Bini."

"Ah, you mean Miss B. Just a moment. I will check her condition first, so please wait a moment."

"Yes, yes..."

Kim Runi looks around.

The [ward] was originally built underground at the Bureau, so it was humid, gloomy, and dark.

But right now, it's been transformed like a clean hospital.

Here and there, people who look like nurses, doctors, and patients walk around, and there is even the faint smell of medicine...

It is no different from a real hospital.

'Even up to a week ago, the ward didn't feel like this... Did they finish such a huge construction project in just a week?'

That is not the only strange thing.

'This is underground...so why are there 'windows,' and why can I see the 'scenery outside the window'?'

Although 'outside the window' is filled with a whitish fog, and something like a forest path is visible, it is clearly an 'outside'.

It isn't even a screen door. He sees nurses opening and closing the windows for ventilation.

"Kim Runi-nim, an interview appointment with your sibling is set. You can go to Room B."

"Ah, yes."

Kim Runi registers at a place called the Medical Administration Department and heads to the hospital room.

And once again, he feels something strange.

'Because we had to build the ward underground...we couldn't build it that wide... I'm sure this is about where the far end of the ward originally was, so why is it this wide...?'

With that bizarre feeling, Kim Runi takes out and looks at the 'rulebook' he received before entering the [ward].

Every area of the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau has 'rules' that must be followed, and only by following each rule can one be safe.

And because the rules change a little every cycle, they distribute a rulebook every cycle, and when agents fully memorize all the rules written in the rulebook, the rulebook disappears at some point.

'Just why has it changed like this...? Is it written in the rulebook?'

However, the rules are not very different from the ward's previous rules, and though there are additions, every one of them is an extremely bizarre rule that seems to have nothing to do with the changes in space at all.

—A new rule has been added. Please familiarize yourself.

—Ward Rule 23.

—In the ward, you must not stare too intently at the faces of the nurses, staff, and doctors. They all look ordinary, so do not stare at their faces for long, and do not try to remember their faces in detail.

—Ward Rule 24.

—If, from time to time, staff who come to work in the ward may mistake you for a patient and rush to isolate you. At that time, calmly shout, 'I am an officer of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, [your name]. Once a Navy, always a Navy! Have you come back to receive the King's one shilling?' They will immediately turn around and run away. Do not deliberately chase them. If they realize you are not a Navy officer, they may fly into a rage.

...

"... What does the ward have to do with the Royal Navy of the British Empire?"

It is just when Kim Runi is wondering.

"Patient! You must receive treatment right now. Where are you wandering around!?"

"Pardon...?"

Kim Runi looks at a group of nurses approaching him and feels puzzled.

They are all male nurses with sturdy builds, and the way they approach with a menacing air makes it seem like they have misunderstood something.

"I think there is a misunderstanding. I am not a patient..."

"Enough! What the patient feels is a delusion. You are suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations, so you cannot distinguish reality. Come this way quietly!"

The nurses surround him, and Kim Runi feels something damp, sinister, and bizarre.

This feeling of something being twisted...

It feels like no words will get through to them.

Kim Runi grips the rulebook tightly and opens his mouth with a stiff, hardened face.

"I am an officer of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, Kim Runi."

Flinch.

At those words, the nurses flinch and stop in place.

Kim Runi, with a hardened face, shouts in a loud voice.

"Once a Navy, always a Navy! Have you come back to receive the King's one shilling?"

Before his words even finish, the nurses immediately turn around and run away.

At their attitude, like they have seen something terrible, Kim Runi feels flustered, and soon realizes something.

"Ah... I see."

This ward,

It itself has already turned into an anomalous phenomenon.

A blind repetition of unknown rules, or blind fear, is a representative characteristic of anomalous phenomena.

All of the hospital's nurses, staff, and doctors are probably a kind of anomalous phenomenon.

'Even though the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau is being openly eroded by anomalous phenomena like this, for the 'Director' not to do anything...does that mean, at the level of the Management Council, they are deliberately grafting anomalous phenomena onto the Bureau and using them usefully?'

It seems like that is the case.

Even the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau's 'Director' alone is a terrifying anomalous phenomenon of unknown identity, yet at the level of the Management Council they control it well and use it to suppress anomalous phenomena.

So this [ward] too probably brought in some other anomalous phenomenon and made it a bit more helpful in treating the victims of anomalous phenomena.

"This works out. Rather than keeping victims in a concentration camp-like facility like before...if they are at least kept somewhere that is clean and managed..."

In any case, since agents' relatives, and sometimes the agents themselves, are occasionally confined in the ward, if the facilities are good then from Kim Runi's standpoint it is welcome.

Of course...

'Like just now, the ward itself arbitrarily treats outsiders as patients and tries to isolate them, so if you get caught wrongly, rookies will get treated as patients for no reason and end up locked up.'

In general, if the 'Director' thinks the patients in the ward have returned to their senses, or that their aftereffects have disappeared, then under the 'Director's' judgment they can come out again.

'But what happens if a sane person gets dragged in?'

He is curious about that point, but he does not deliberately dig any deeper.

'Eh, forget it. Let's not be too curious. This is a place where having too much curiosity makes your lifespan shorter...'

Kim Runi quickly erases his curiosity and goes to visit his younger sibling.

"By the way...when is a rookie going to come in?"

With many agents recently going into the ward, manpower is desperately needed, but since multiple conditions must be met to enter the Bureau, rookies really do not come in easily.

Kim Runi knows it well himself.

The Bureau is now becoming, in itself, a single 'anomalous phenomenon'.

And for someone to work inside this huge lump of an anomalous phenomenon called the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau, that person has to have very special qualifications.

Which is why it is truly hard for new recruits to come in.

"A fresh rookie needs to come in soon..."

* * *

"What do I live off on...?"

A fresh member of society, Kim Hae-sol, blankly stares up at the sky and sighs.

"Should've listened to the TA and gone to grad school..."

Back when Kim Yeon, who was his teaching assistant, strongly made an offer to scout him into graduate school...maybe he should have just accepted and gone along quietly.

'They say grad students are no different from slaves, so I didn't go, but...'

Just looking at Kim Yeon, the TA, she seems to be everywhere on campus working as if she uses some kind of clone technique...

It is obvious that if he goes to grad school, he would get ground down even more than Kim Yeon, so he did not go.

But now that he actually graduated college, there is nothing he can do right away, so it's become an intense worry.

"Ugh... I don't even have much money right now...and my parents said if I'm not going to grad school, they won't support me anymore...and if I look for part-time jobs, there aren't any sweet gigs at all... Should I just endure it by pulling in a lot through construction day labor?"

It is when Kim Hae-sol sighs heavily again and again, worrying on a park bench.

"Hae-sol-ssi. What are you doing here?"

"Ah, TA-nim!"

When Kim Yeon, who was his former teaching assistant, recognizes him, Kim Hae-sol greets her happily.

"Do you want coffee? I'll buy."

"Huk, thank you!"

"Hae-sol-ssi, you look like you have something on your mind. Something bothering you?"

"Ah...well..."

Kim Hae-sol smiles awkwardly and confides his worries.

"Ah... I see. Finding a job takes some time, so you need a part-time job position to hold out until then, right?"

"Yes... But when I looked into part-time job positions, they're all kind of iffy so... I'm thinking I might just do construction day labor or something where I can earn a lot of money, even if I suffer a bit."

At those words, Kim Yeon looks like she is thinking about something, then speaks.

"Hae-sol-ssi...among the unnies I know, there's an unnie who says she's short on hands lately. Do you want me to connect you to that Unnie? The work that unnie does...it's hard to tell you because it's confidential, but it's a job that pays a lot."

"Ah, really? How much does it pay...?"

"If you do part-time work for a day...she says she pays this much per hour...so you probably get this much?"

Kim Hae-sol stares with eyes wide open as he looks at the number Kim Yeon shows on the calculator.

"U-Uh...uuuuh!"

Kim Hae-sol speaks with his eyes rolling back.

"I-I'll do it, I want to do it! Please let me do it!"

"Ah, if that's the case... I'll contact that unnie for you. She won't refuse if it's my request, so come out tomorrow morning at 4 a.m. to the east gate entrance of this park. Unnie will come to pick you up."

"Huk, yes! Thank you!"

"I'm the one who's grateful. That unnie has been having a hard time lately, so I wanted to help, and thanks to you, Hae-sol-ssi, my heart feels at ease."

"Oh, no. I'm the one who..."

"By the way, if you help Unnie with her work, there will probably be a time you need this, so take it with you. It's a dharma treasure...no, a device sample that unnie's side commissions to our lab in the form of industry-academic cooperation. Try using it once and tell me your thoughts."

Wo-woong!

Kim Yeon hands Kim Hae-sol something shaped like a small flashlight, and Kim Hae-sol takes it and asks.

"What is this? How do I use it...?"

"Unnie will tell you how to use it. Then you really are going to do the part-time work, right?"

"Ah, yes. I'd be grateful if you leave it to me."

"Okay, then I'll contact unnie. Be out at 4 a.m. tomorrow, and also, good luck for your job search!"

"Yes, TA-nim!"

Kim Hae-sol bows at a ninety-degree angle to Kim Yeon, and grins as he lifts the corners of his mouth at the part-time pay amount Kim Yeon showed him.

"Crazy... I make that much if I work one day? If I do part-time work for just one week, I can just lie around for half a year. At that level, for job prep..."

And suddenly, Kim Hae-sol pauses for a moment at a strange sense of incongruity.

"... But what kind of part-time job is it that it pays this much?"

A strange thought brushes past.

But soon he shakes his head.

"Come on. No matter what, would TA Kim Yeon really introduce a weird part-time job? It's TA Kim Yeon..."

Of course, there are ominous rumors going around lately, so Kim Hae-sol decides to be careful.

'If I come out at dawn...and it's some weird van, or if it looks like there are a lot of suspicious people in it besides the person called unnie, I should just run away.'

* * *

The next day at dawn,

Kim Hae-sol waits in a corner of the park for the person TA Kim Yeon calls her 'Unnie.'

'It's about time.'

It is then.

Wo-woong—

A long limousine with a pleasant engine sound pulls in front of the park, and from the front of the park, the door clicks open.

"... Huh?"

When Kim Hae-sol sees 'someone' inside that door beckoning a finger at him, he naturally walks to the limousine as if bewitched.

At the clear, soft voice coming from inside, Kim Hae-sol slowly gets into the limousine and sits, then looks around blankly.

"Are you Kim Hae-sol?"

"Ah, yes, yes!"

Inside the limousine, there is a curtain, and the person called 'Unnie,' who calls Kim Hae-sol, does not show her face from behind the curtain.

He does not even have ominous thoughts like it is a kidnapping.

A strange feeling and a bizarre atmosphere completely take over the inside of the limousine.

Huuuu...

From the silhouette visible behind the curtain, Kim Hae-sol notices that she is holding something like a pipe in her mouth and smoking it.

'Smoking in a car...'

As Kim Hae-sol squints his eyes a little,

As if she reads that thought, the woman on the other side speaks.

"It's not a cigarette, it's an aroma pipe. Don't worry too much."

"Ah, y-yes. Understood. Um...by any chance, where are we going, and what kind of work are we doing?"

"There's a mountain of work... First, I'm going to watch and decide what side you have aptitude for."

"Aptitude..."

In this strange and luxurious limousine, Kim Hae-sol swallows hard at the strange voice of her that comes from beyond that curtain.

For some reason, with each and every word she says, an intuition that his fate is going to be decided flashes through his mind.

From beyond the curtain, Kim Hae-sol feels her gaze looking at him.

After a brief silence, she mutters something from beyond the curtain.

"Is this the New Fate that Yeon was collecting? Well, from the beginning there were two who died ridiculously to a bear, and there was even one guy who died of old age... There are already only four left on Mount Sumeru, so I guess I should make preparations."

"...?"

It is definitely Korean, but other than the word 'Yeon', he cannot understand what she is saying.

"Still, since that kid took notice of you, it seems like you have quite a bit of talent. Maybe you're a bit better than the kids Sword Spear recklessly threw in... Well, for now, I think I know what your aptitude is."

"Uh...pardon? I...don't need to do something like an aptitude test?"

"You don't need it. From what I see, you seem to have a good eye for people, don't you? You are the right fit for saving people."

"Pardon?"

"The part-time job you're going to do is this. On Ghost Island, you take people and help them escape. Can you do it?"

"Pardon? W-Wait, just a moment. What do you mean saving people...and what do you mean escaping? I didn't hear about a part-time job like that..."

"I got your account number from Yeon. I just deposited the advance payment there. Can you check it for me?"

"Pardon? Uh..."

And then, after checking his bankbook, Kim Hae-sol shuts his mouth and listens to her words with proper posture.

"Whatever it is, just leave it to me. Whether I save people or kill them, I'll do it all!"

"Very excellent. Still, I won't make you kill people, so don't worry. And there is absolutely no chance you die or become crippled, so don't worry either."

The woman behind the curtain.

Kang Min-hee looks at the human with the exceptional 'eye' called Kim Hae-sol, and smiles faintly.

He is someone Kim Yeon recommended, and he is an extremely special human.

Even on Earth, where the mysterious is barren, he is someone who was born by his own power with faint spiritual intuition.

She looks at the materials about the recently reported anomalous phenomenon, G-103.

It is an anomalous phenomenon commonly called 'Ghost Island,' and as she looks at it, she smacks her lips.

'The whole island is a single anomalous phenomenon. The range its ability reaches is also extremely wide, so it randomly kidnaps nearby fishing boats within a 200 km radius or makes them disappear...a kind of area-type anomalous phenomenon.'

What she takes note of is that it is a place that is extremely suitable for moving the base of the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau.

But the problem is...

'Since it's tangled up with real-world power brokers and the wealthy, if I, the Director, go personally and beat them down, it will definitely cause trouble...so I should use humans who are officially unrelated to the Bureau and rescue only the innocent missing people and victims.'

She reads the celestial energy.

Even on Earth, although it is not the same form as Mount Sumeru, fate exists in another form, and by reading it, she can see the future to some extent.

'On Ghost Island, a great misfortune will soon strike, and the humans inside it will be massacred.'

Of course, since a significant number of the humans entangled with Ghost Island are utterly vicious evildoers, whether they die or not is none of Kang Min-hee's concern, but the innocent victims must be rescued.

"... I'm going to tell you about a place called Ghost Island. It lures many people and drags them into the island... It fans their desires, granting only a very small number what they want, and slowly eats the rest. A monster island, you see."

At Kang Min-hee's continuing explanation, Kim Hae-sol's eyes gradually only grow wider, and at the fact that something so terrifying exists in this world itself, he continues to be aghast.

* * *

Ji Hwa likes resting.

She usually likes resting, and she rests well in her own way, but that day she wants to rest even more intensely.

So she has her main body play games in her room with Seo Eun-hyun, and sends only her split body to go to work at the kindergarten.

And because she does not want to suffer much even with the split body, she only puts her stats and perception into the split body at an ordinary person's level, and with her main body she focuses only on playing with Seo Eun-hyun.

As a result,

That evening, Ji Hwa's split body is completely worn out, and as she clocks out with a tired face, she smacks her lips.

"So annoying... I did get a job at the kindergarten as an excuse to kidnap Seo Eun-hyun, but I just want to farm and make money like usual... Uaaah..."

Her main body is distracted at home, playing an intense game with Seo Eun-hyun, and the split body, who is granted only ordinary-level perception and physical bodies, is mixed with fatigue and annoyance, so a slight opening appears at that moment.

What happens to Ji Hwa's split body is...

Thwack!!!

Something powerful smacks the back of Ji Hwa's head, and Ji Hwa tries to counterattack quickly, but her body does not move well.

'Huh...?'

She quickly grasps the situation.

'Ah, damn...'

The situation is simple.

Just as she, a few days ago, smashed the back of Seo Eun-hyun's split body's head, knocked him out, and kidnapped him to her own home.

The exact same thing is now happening to her.

'Retribution.'

It is the function of Seo Eun-hyun's Innate Immortal art, the Impermanence Sword.

Recently, Seo Eun-hyun's Impermanence Sword is not just an Immortal Art, but has grown to be comparable to causality itself, so it is gradually exerting influence even on Earth, where only a split body exists rather than the main body.

'Because of the Impermanence Sword's Retribution...did I, who kidnapped, have to be kidnapped? Tsk...it can't be helped.'

Because causality itself flowed that way and made this happen, Ji Hwa decides to just let herself be kidnapped.

If she wants to resist, she can, but if she resists the Impermanence Sword that rivals the law of causality, she will only get tired for no reason, and above all, her main body is playing with Seo Eun-hyun at home anyway, so she figures it does not matter.

'Well...then... I'll just watch what they do after kidnapping me.'

Like that, Ji Hwa's split body slowly closes her eyes and enters into a dream.

The place where Ji Hwa's split body opens her eyes is inside a bizarre cement room.

'This is...?'

Inside the room there is only a thin blanket and a speaker, and the door leading outside is a solid iron door that seems to have a remote open-and-close device.

It is when she is grasping the situation.

Jijijik—

A crackling sound rings out from the speaker, and someone's voice flows out.

—Nice to meet you, debtors. We wish to give you, who took other people's money and squandered it away, one chance.

'Debtors? The voice is echoing outside too. Are there other rooms? I hear breathing. It looks like several people besides me were captured. If they're going on about debtors...did they kidnap people who borrowed money from OO like me? Ah, right, come to think of it, I think there was a clause in the terms that if you can't pay your debt, you pay with your body... So not organs, but kidnapping you like this?'

—And even that, in a way that is more than you deserve, in the form of a truly enjoyable game, you see. Of course...if you lose the game, something a bit unpleasant will happen, but there are high and mighty people who like that unpleasant thing, so it amounts to repaying the money you borrowed with your body.

—But in any case, if you only participate in this game, we will write off all the debt you carry. And if you are the victor who wins the game, you can receive an immense prize of as much as twenty billion won!

—Now, soon a tray containing two pills will go into your rooms. If you take the red pill, we will consider that you will not participate in the game, and we will send you back home. If you take the blue pill, we will consider it consent that you will participate in the game, and that you will not hold anyone responsible for anything that happens in the game!

"Hooh..."

Ji Hwa sits in the room, recalls the contents of a drama she watched recently, and laughs as if it is fun.

"A death game? This is fun. Giving me a chance to pay off my debt this quickly... I'm the one who's grateful, you know."

She sniffs, pricks up her ears, and roughly catches on to where she is.

'A salty smell. And judging from the sound of waves I hear with the Thousand-Li Listening Art...it's an island. But something about this island is strange...it's subtly different from Earth's energy... Is it a fragment that flowed in from an otherworld?"

Ji Hwa quickly swallows the blue pill on the tray that comes in under the iron door, and smiles.

'Well, if it comes to it, I can just kill every living thing on the island and leave, so...'

Not only those 'high and mighty people' who likely commissioned the abductions to this island and, somewhere on the island, are watching them for entertainment, but also among the others who were abducted to this island, she feels that the overwhelming majority, without exception, either committed evil deeds or do not have a normal history and fate.

"Since it's a place only those with deep sins come to...even if I kill them all and savor the feel of it, nobody can say anything... Truly..."

Feeling the blue pill bring a sleeping effect to the split body's body, she falls asleep, expecting the taste of blood she will feel after so long.

"It's going to be good entertainment..."