This Is Everyday Life Here

I'd once seen a humorous online post titled "This is everyday life in OOO." The setting was a cold, snowy foreign country. In the GIF, a bald man waited for the elevator in a dark underground parking garage. Moments later the doors opened, revealing a blood-soaked corpse sprawled inside. Yet the man simply glanced at it, thought nothing of it, pressed his floor, and closed the doors. It was probably a hidden-camera prank or staged video satirizing how frequent crime and shootouts had left people numb to the sight of bodies.

"Urk! Fuck!"

What appeared before my eyes wasn't some fake. It was a real corpse, thick with a stomach-turning stench.

It was impossible to tell how many people it had once been. Their clothes, even their black dress shoes, had been shredded to tiny pieces. From a quick look, it seemed like the remains of three or four victims.

Maybe because I'd just been fantasizing about a delicious meal, my stomach felt twice as queasy.

Why the hell is something like this here?!

I'd already heard that the Bureau had collapsed, but when my senior casually walked in and boarded the elevator, I'd assumed at least the minimum cleanup would have been done.

While trying to settle my churning stomach and reaching for the next elevator—

It was a hallucination?

After confirming the status window and blinking, I muttered—

"Huh?"

-Kehehehehehe.

A ghost in rags stepped out of the elevator, both hands raised, wiggling its fingers at me.

Is that so? I rolled my neck side to side with a loud crack, stretching, then—

Click!

I snapped open the three-section staff that had grown familiar in my grip.

"Hey."

-Gek?

Only then did the creature realize the hallucination it had cast on me had broken and that I was staring straight at it with both eyes.

"You son of a bitch, ruining my appetite like this."

-Geheeeeeeek?!

Filled with fury, I swung the three-section staff at the anomaly. A juicy smack reverberated through the elevator.

In other words, this thing was a low-grade wandering spirit. Not a major threat, but an annoying summer flea-fly that gets on your nerves.

"Fuck off!"

-Geheeeeek!!!

The anomaly flailed, covering its face with both arms as if begging me to stop.

"Hey."

-Ge, gek?

"Hand over your core."

-Shake shake.

"Oh?"

I'd tried to take the easy route, but since it insisted on the hard way—

"Then you get beaten."

While I was pounding it for a while, the gallery members started leaving follow-up comments asking why there was no reply. It was annoying to answer one by one, and my hands were full, so I simply turned on screen sharing.

"What do you mean? I'm catching an anomaly."

What are these guys saying?

"Abuse is a concept that only applies to humans and animals. For these anomaly bastards, it's not abuse—it's correction. Proper education."

Luckily, it ended faster than with the bathroom mimic. Since it was smaller than that mimic, its endurance seemed proportionally weaker too. I didn't know where the core was, so I just beat everything I could reach. Then—

Crunch!

Somehow I hit the core. The anomaly was completely subdued, leaving behind only a small piece of cloth.

"It happened last time too. When they're completely suppressed, they turn into objects like this?"

"How long does that take?"

"Is that so?"

I'd been worried I'd have to hand it to my senior right away, but it seemed I didn't need to deal with it immediately. I stuffed the former anomaly into my pocket and boarded the elevator.

While watching the gallery members' nonsense, I heard—

Ding!

The elevator had already stopped at the second basement floor and arrived at the third. A wide, expansive hallway appeared, lined on both sides with dormitory rooms. Here and there I could see the "Emergency Shelter" signs mentioned in the guidebook.

"But where's my room?"

"Name tag?"

Sure enough, the detailed information on the back of the name tag said Room 305.

"Thanks."

When I held the name tag to the door lock, it opened automatically.

"Whoa, this is the dormitory?"

Unlike the doors crammed together in the hallway, the inside was a two-room layout and much more spacious than I'd expected. The bathroom was clean, and the bed looked fluffy.

"Ah, the meal ticket—"

Just as the guidebook said, a meal ticket was placed on the desk.

"Alright then. Time to turn off screen sharing?"

"What are you guys on about? I'm going to wash up and go eat."

"I know."

I slipped the meal ticket into my pants pocket so I wouldn't forget. After turning off screen sharing, I washed up, then headed down to the cafeteria. Following the guidebook, the Chef didn't suddenly pop out or drag me in.

"The gallery members were right. This is seriously delicious."

The menu was simple side dishes, kimchi, and ordinary beef radish soup, yet everything tasted fantastically good, like nothing I'd ever eaten before. I finally understood why the hypothesis existed that agents didn't defect because of the food.

After finishing a hearty dinner, I returned to my room. There was a high-end desktop and a large TV inside, but I didn't feel like using them. I simply brushed my teeth and lay down on the bed early.

Only then did I fully feel the exhaustion in my body.

"Haaaah."

I'd only just finished the tutorial. From now on, things would be far more dangerous and horrific.

Therefore—

"I should rest properly."

So that no matter what difficulty came my way, I'd be able to overcome it. Right now was the time to recharge thoroughly.

Sleep flooded over me. Right before I closed my eyes, one thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

My senior, who had gone up first to rest.

I wonder what she's doing? Did she finish up properly and go to bed?

And—

What kind of anomaly is my senior, really...?

That was as far as my thoughts went before my memory cut off.

The red-haired agent trudged to the fourth-floor dormitory. She kicked off her shoes, stripped off her top and bottom, and tossed them aside. The gentle, kind expression she'd shown in front of her junior was gone without a trace. Instead, she wore the deeply furrowed face of a terminal cancer patient for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠whom simply living through each day was agony, and headed for the bathroom.

Shaaaaa—

After letting the cold shower water pour over her for a while, she stepped out without even drying herself with a towel. Strangely, the moisture vanished from her body in an instant. Wearing only underwear, she sat at the desk, opened her laptop, and with an expression still completely blank, clicked play on a video file on the desktop.

The video ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠played the same horrific scene she had watched until she was sick of it. It was the beginning of a recording from one of the Bureau's underground isolation rooms. Agents and researchers ran in every direction, screaming as they were torn apart. Blood sprayed, limbs were severed as a matter of course, and bodies were crushed whole by massive fists. Red warning lights spun without pause. Just as the blaring alarm became an irritating noise buzzing in her ears—

Thud. Thump.

In front of the camcorder that was recording, a red-haired agent appeared. A deep wound on her left shoulder poured a large amount of blood onto her black suit. Her eyes were trembling violently.

"Snap out of it! Snap out of it, Kang Mirae!"

"Remember who I am! Don't forget!"

"You must not lose control of your body! Keep remembering why you joined the Bureau!"

"Even if I die and the person called me disappears—"

"Even if I become an anomaly, don't forget the task I must complete!"

"You must not forget!"

"Because now, nothing else is left for me! So take care of that new recruit—the only one who managed to escape from here—"

Before she could finish, a black shadow fell over the screen. She let out a short sigh—"Ha"—then shouted, shaking.

"I'm not scared! I... I... will definitely—"

Crunch! Crack!

A terrible sound rang out, the camcorder tumbled to the floor, and the view spun dizzily. The video ended there.

My senior stared fixedly at the screen, moved the mouse, and pressed the replay button. The video started again from the beginning. People's screams echoed, and the desperate scene of them begging for their lives replayed. She repeated this horrific process all night long, muttering under her breath that she had to.

I woke up after sleeping deeply, ate breakfast, and went to work. When I asked the gallery members, they said the main office was on the third basement floor. So I headed there and—

"Welcome baaack~"

I met my senior, who greeted me with a bright expression.

"Did you rest wellll~?"

"Yes, thanks to you."

"Good~ Then shall we work hard again today toooo~?"

I'd been worried about her the day before, but seeing her like this made me feel like it had been needless concern.

"Yes, I'll do my best!"

"Then I'll explain today's duties for youuu~?"

What insane mission would we be heading out for this time? My heart pounded as I waited with tense anticipation.

And then—

...Eh?

It was the moment I felt like an idiot for getting nervous over content that was completely outside my expectations.