Anomaly-36 (6): Boing Boing Boing!
“Huh…?”
After leaving behind the words to become Baekgu's plaything.
The dark energy started bouncing around like mad.
Its body had already been mostly torn away by me, so it wasn't much of a threat anymore, but it sure looked furious.
“Um… h-hey?”
I tried desperately to salvage the situation, but it seemed like the enraged dark energy couldn't hear a word I said.
“Ughhh…”
Racking my brain over how to handle this, I blurted out in a panic.
“L-Let's… negotiate! We can negotiate!”
“Just two hours a day! Only two hours of playtime!”
“You wanna live too, right?”
“Just two hours a day playing with Baekgu, and I won't touch you after that.”
The dark energy, which had been wildly venting its rage, fell silent at my proposal, seemingly mulling it over.
Of course, I still planned to keep stripping away bits of it to ensure it stayed harmless.
Even rolling in dog poop is better than the afterlife.
The dark energy would probably prefer to stay alive too, right?
No matter how tough Baekgu's steel-like stamina is, he can't play all day anyway.
So two hours should be manageable.
I figured it could be a fair compromise for both of us.
After deep deliberation, the dark energy nodded.
Then it turned its gaze toward Han A-young.
“Wh-what?! Don't touch sis!”
Worried it might try something nasty, I hurriedly stepped in front of Han A-young.
But seeing it shake its head side to side, it didn't seem like it planned to harm her.
So why look at her then?
“Oh… you need her permission?”
“Hold on a sec…”
I slyly peeked open the eyes I'd squeezed shut.
Han A-young, clueless about what was happening, just stood there awkwardly.
“Um… A-young sis?”
“Yeah…?”
“I kinda negotiated with the soccer ball, you know.”
“Negotiated?”
Since I'd gone ahead without her okay, I braced for a scolding.
But she didn't seem mad at all.
Phew, lucky~
“The dark energy agreed to play with Baekgu for two hours a day… in exchange for not getting erased.”
“Hmm…”
“I've already peeled off most of it anyway… so it shouldn't be too dangerous…”
Han A-young crossed her arms.
She pondered for a moment, then spoke up.
“Then, can we add one more condition?”
“What is it?”
“When it goes berserk, I wanna study the ball's material a bit.”
I closed my eyes again and turned back to the dark energy.
It must've heard her voice too, so no need to repeat.
After some silent thought, the dark energy rippled and nodded.
Deal sealed.
This containment cell was starting to feel like home.
“Yawwwn…”
I sprawled on the sofa, stretching out a big yawn.
Liberated from all labor, eating whenever I wanted, sleeping whenever I felt like it—this blissful life.
The only downside was no free internet, but otherwise, it was every NEET's dream spot.
Here I was, killing another idle day.
Baekgu, back from a fun romp with the soccer ball in its field, was curled up in my arms, sleeping soundly.
Having napped too much myself, I couldn't sleep and just stared blankly into space.
Unlike our leisurely vibe, the hallway echoed with the busy footsteps of agency staff rushing about.
They sure work hard.
Having spent quite a while in this cell, I'd picked up a lot about the agency from overheard chats.
Fighting anomalies from the shadows, driven by a mission to protect the world.
They paid well, but the dangers were insane—without that sense of duty, no one could stick it out.
Meaning all those agents hustling out there were fueled purely by conviction…
Honestly, pretty impressive.
Crunch crunch.
Munching on potato chips amid my musings.
The word "stairs" caught my ear.
Stairs—the place where I saw that creepy thing last time, right?
Han A-young said CCTV showed nothing off, but now they were sending agents in person.
“Ughhh…”
Thinking about the stairs brought back those scary memories, overlapping vividly.
“It was… so scary…”
I could only hope the agent uncles made it out safe.
I'd passed them in the halls a lot, and if any of them got hurt…
“Wahhh…”
It'd make me kinda sad.
Anomaly Management Agency Chungju Base, Central Control Room.
The vast chamber brimmed with countless monitors and intricate machines.
The screens broadcast bodycam feeds from agents entering the stairs.
Shrieking devices displayed real-time metrics.
“Hmmm…”
Overseeing it all, Han A-young sipped her Americano out of habit.
The riskiest moments came facing unknown anomalies of mysterious origin.
Even she gripped her hands tight in tension then.
But as the base's top commander, she couldn't show it.
So she sought ways to steady her nerves—even if just a little.
For her, that was a warm Americano.
As the hot liquid flowed in, easing her tension a bit.
The lead agent pushed open the door.
A mundane staircase unfolded.
No red mat like the angel claimed—just ordinary steps on bodycam.
> "Gamma-25 here. No anomalies visible to the naked eye."
> "Gamma-21, same here."
The entering agents saw no red mat either.
But Han A-young kept her guard up.
The angel didn't know, but these stairs were laced with talismans to stay stable as emergency exits, even in disasters.
8—lying horizontal, the infinity symbol; completion, cycles.
9—the largest single digit, symbolizing perfection, humanity's pinnacle.
8 times 9 equals 72, mythically potent.
Thus, every agency base's emergency stairs had exactly 72 steps.
One might dismiss numerology as wordplay.
But in this era of rampant anomalies, such "play" yielded real results.
When breaches razed bases, these stairs always endured, saving countless lives.
Yet preserving that structure hid dangers too—like Solomon's 72 demons, marking 72 as the devil's number.
> "Delta-6 Team, all arrived safely. Orders?"
Tension for naught—the agents climbed smoothly, spotting nothing.
“Hmm…”
Should she order another sweep? As Han A-young pondered.
mythic anomaly detected
One machine blared an emergency tone.
She reflexively checked it.
It warned of mythical anomalies.
“This isn't good…”
No anomalies on bodycam yet.
But something bad was brewing.
> "Delta-6, withdraw immediately. Repeat: Delta-6, withdraw immediately."
> "Withdrawing now."
The agents' faces on cam looked grim—they'd sensed it too.
As they bolted out the door.
“Hmm…”
Via CCTV, Han A-young confirmed the anomaly unfolding on the stairs.
The floor now carpeted in the inky-red mat the angel described.
Bloody-hued flowers bloomed on the walls, forming letters.
Well-versed in Greek, Han A-young deciphered it.
“I want to meet that cute angel…”
Her face hardened as she murmured the translation.
Whatever this unknown entity was, it wanted to meet the angel.