Chapter 160
Chapter 160
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: I Have to Go to Work Even If I Fall into a Ghost Story
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The agents from the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau turned their heads.
"Whoa!"
In an instant, a wire hooked with flashy nails snagged onto the hem of the baby mermaid's clothing and wrapped around it.
A Team Deputy's signature weapon.
"Huh? It's fireworks!"
The child laughed.
While listening to the polluted baby mermaid's laughter, Jin Nason sliced off the most vital parts first.
The areas that secreted paralyzing fluid and infectious slime.
Slice.
"Aaahhh!"
The massive tail attached to the baby mermaid came clean off.
Blood and mucus burst out.
"It hurts! It hurts!"
By a hair's breadth, the agent's attack grazed past.
Jin Nason didn't hesitate and yanked the now-tail-less, neutralized baby mermaid toward her with the wire, grabbing it in one hand.
"Eek!"
And she declared,
"Come any closer, and it dies."
"…!"
It was a perfectly rational choice.
'My legs aren't normal.'
Jin Nason's calf, still numb from the earlier rattle scythe hit, had forced her to use an item even while chasing that ominous cat all the way here.
Facing off against two Bureau agents in this state while grabbing items and fleeing would be idiotic.
Jin Nason despised idiotic moves.
Thus, she chose.
"I said don't come closer."
"…!"
Even if words didn't get through, some communication worked through gestures alone.
"Bronze, hold on a sec."
Agent Choi, who valued every single life, immediately raised his hands in mock surrender toward Jin Nason while frantically racking his brain for alternatives.
However…
'Hostage.'
As a by-the-book Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agent, Bronze eyed the villain before him darkly.
These scum were planning to snatch an item that could save twelve kids for their own selfish gain and bolt.
'Even though they could escape without taking it.'
If they let them go like this, the twelve kids would die.
And the Bureau's priorities were clear.
Maximum survival with minimal sacrifice.
-If sacrificing one civilian could save more civilians.
'Then that's what they do.'
"…Bronze?"
Agent Bronze decided swiftly.
And he raised his glass handgun, charging forward.
"Hey…!"
But at that moment, another creature moved simultaneously.
Ding-a-ling.
"Huh? No, wait…"
Amid Baek Saheon's flustered voice, the cat leaped silently from his shoulder.
In the cat's mouth was a conch shell tied with a golden string, the 'Angel's Sigh.'
Pulled from Baek Saheon's bag.
"No!"
The cat charged straight at Jin Nason.
"…!"
Jin Nason reflexively prepared to kick it and launch her wire, but the cat's target wasn't that employee.
The cat veered slightly to the side, downward.
"Huh? Cat doll…"
The baby mermaid held hostage by Jin Nason.
The cat pressed the conch shell, gripped in its teeth, fully against the baby mermaid's ear.
"…!"
A faint voice echoed from within the shell.
Humming.
It sounded like a beautiful singer's melody, or the lullaby hummed by parents holding you as a child.
Like a powerful verse from a national anthem, or a hymn overflowing with cheers and vitality.
But just one excerpt from it.
One melody softly and tenderly emerged from the conch, tickling the child's ear.
"…Huh?"
The tailless baby mermaid froze.
Mm, umm, um, uuum.
The bleeding slowed.
The inflammation on its face and limbs covered in ulcers subsided, the infection syndrome twisting its limbs vanished, and its vocal cords returned to normal.
Of course, it didn't revert perfectly to a child's form like time rewinding.
But the rapidly spreading infection lost momentum, and the original human life within the child blazed like flames fed fresh kindling.
The next moment.
"Huuuuh…"
The child, gasping for breath, regained the appearance of a sick kid.
"……."
"……."
In the wondrous sight, human instinct made everyone pause for a moment.
"Wh-what is this? Mommy…!"
The child burst into hysterical sobs.
The infection had ebbed, clearing the hallucinations, the sparkling Dragon Palace vanished, and it began seeing the horrific reality with its own eyes.
"…!"
'It even broke free of the brainwashing…!'
But as the child, expelled from the ecstatic, beautiful 'Sparkling Dragon Palace,' kept sobbing.
Surprisingly, the cat went inside and comforted it!
"Hey, Kitty…"
Even as the child roughly grabbed and yanked its head with chubby hands, it sat still without flinching.
It looked even creepier that way, but it was a clear signal regardless.
That thing was friendly toward children.
'Does the ghost story have different rules based on age?'
True to her Field Exploration Team elite status, Jin Nason analyzed while not releasing her hostage.
But she no longer overtly suppressed the child. She couldn't predict what reaction that cat-shaped danger would show.
However…
"These guys are truly out of their minds."
Some exploited the opening perfectly.
"…!"
Bullets flew.
Jin Nason saw it. The agent opposite aimed at her legs with the glass handgun, while the one already closing in tried to bind her upper body.
'Ha.'
Jin Nason deliberately fell backward.
Her unbalanced, erratic body movement narrowly evaded the agents' restraint.
And with one hand, she flung the hostage child forward, right in front of her.
Toward Agent Choi.
"…!"
The moment Agent Choi caught the child hugging the cat.
'Hostages are a dime a dozen out there.'
Jin Nason judged coldly and prepared to kick down the door.
'Retreat.'
The other Daydream Corporation employees who witnessed it swiftly moved to follow her lead and escape, and Baek Saheon gripped the bag with the remaining eleven 'Angel's Sighs' tight, about to bolt.
[This way]
The cat looked over.
"…!"
The ominous cat quietly walked out from the child's arms held by Agent Choi.
"What's it doing…"
The four-legged beast walked amid the frozen people, stopping before something.
The baby mermaid's tail severed by Jin Nason.
The ulcerous lump's tendon.
[This way]
The cat's form crackled with static as it turned to the people.
"Wh-what are we supposed to do with that…"
[This way]
Crimson eyes peered into me.
A gaze that seemed to already know my entire story.
"……."
Fuck.
Baek Saheon quickly picked up the tail with his gloved hand, trying to stuff it into the front of his waterproof bag.
But Agent Choi snatched the tail first.
"Ah…!"
Agent Choi gripped and subdued the tail, still writhing to parasitize him as if he were a 'child,' and said to the cat,
"Did you provoke the attack because you needed this?"
Silence.
"What's this tail useful for?"
The cat didn't answer.
But it did.
[This way]
By staring at the Daydream Corporation employees.
"…!"
Agent Choi stowed the tail in a sealing bag, then hurriedly scribbled on the floor with the chalk he'd been picking up.
A means of connection sharing the gazes of the Mermaid Grave and Sparkling Dragon Palace.
-You guys use this tail, huh?
"…!"
-Tell me first how you use it, and I won't fight until we get out of here~ Swear on my agent's honor!^^
-Is it for escaping? I know all about escaping on the escape boat. Where and how do you use it?
'Crazy bastard…'
But Agent Choi had something to rely on.
-Seems like the cat wants us to talk too?
[10]
"Ah, seriously!"
Baek Saheon surveyed the surroundings, exasperated by the cat starting its countdown on cue.
'Don't wanna take the lead…'
Fortunately, Kang Ihak quickly crouched and began writing an answer.
-Whoa, how much will you pay if I tell? lol
'Another crazy bastard.'
-We're brokeㅠㅠ You rich folks endure! Don't wanna get your head exploded by the cat~
"Tch."
'You motherfuckers…!'
In the end, under the countdown pressure, Baek Saheon shoved aside his money-mad colleague and wrote the answer himself.
-You already know everything... We need the tail in the escape process.
-But we've never barbarically cut off a baby mermaid's tail, only minimally from fully infected regular infected ones. We need to survive too...
'Obvious it'd freak out if we said we killed kids!'
He'd worded it as prettily as possible, but Agent Choi didn't bat an eye.
-How exactly? Fuel? Ticket? Sacrifice?
Was it okay to spit this far?
[6]
Damn it.
-Ticket.
As he wrote, Baek Saheon reflexively glared at where the cat had been. Squeezing with countdown like it'd kill, now satisfied, you psychopath…
But the cat was already gone from there.
"…!"
It stood by the window.
On its hind legs.
[This way]
The cat's posture was bizarre.
As if someone forcibly puppeteered it, standing ghost-like by the window on hind legs, it raised its left front paw, pointing west somewhere.
That was…
'…Escape boat direction!'
And it plummeted below the window.
"…!!"
People rushed to the window and looked down, but nothing was there…
The cat had vanished.
"…Ha."
Suddenly, the air felt lighter.
As some caught their breath and others frantically turned their heads.
"Escape boat… escape boat!"
Baek Saheon tore at his hair.
"Yeah! It meant ride the escape boat and get out!"
"What?"
"It, it was telling us to prepare for death or whatever, but now it means ride the escape boat or it'll kill us…!"
"…!"
"We gotta go now…"
But the Daydream Corporation employees didn't forget the danger rashly.
Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau agents were still in this space.
And…
The influence of what had been the cat's actions moments ago.
"……."
Then. Agent Choi was lost in thought.
The cat had made them remove the tail from the baby mermaid and treated it with the conch shell.
Anyone could see it was friendly toward children…
'Hmm.'
The agent calmly wrote on the floor.
-The cat showed where the conch shells are and even demoed treatment, so it probably means use them to save as many kids as possible…
-Anyone wanna get dog-killed by the monster while being greedy for stuff?
'Fuck.'
But the agent's words didn't end there.
-Otherwise, temporary truce until we all get out safely?
"…!"
-Let's see about safely taking out as many kids as possible. Using the conch shells, on that escape boat you're using.
"……."
Jin Nason shoved Baek Saheon aside and stepped forward boldly.
"…!"
Staring at the agent without blinking, she wrote on the floor.
-Any funny business, and we shoot to kill.
"Okay~"
Thus, a bizarre temporary alliance formed.
A setup that could use both Mermaid Grave and Sparkling Dragon Palace senses, with enough people to handle biohazards while carrying multiple children at once.
'…Did it orchestrate this?'
Ryu Jaegwan's eyes twitched.
What supernatural phenomenon was that cat-shaped ghost story from, to pull off something like this…… No, for now, escaping this place safely and completing the mission was priority.
Yeah, and he wasn't alone anymore. They'd even gotten a newbie…
Wait!
"Grape!"
Ryu Jaegwan turned stiffly to his superior in a hurry.
The newbie, still searching for salvageable civilians among the children, was being left behind…!
"We need to find them now. If they get left behind here…"
"Hold on, hold on! Calm down. We're meeting tonight anyway. We might run into them on the way to gather the kids."
That was the problem…!
'We can't drag these scum along…!'
"First, let's threaten the kids a bit."
Agent Choi took the tissue samples from regular infected tails they'd collected as collateral instead of leaving the conch shells with Baek Saheon, verified they weren't lying about the escape boat's location.
And even secretly attached a tracker to a conch shell while pretending to tussle over it, finishing his precautions.
"Good."
Finally, they firmly set a meetup at the building near the escape boat.
"Now, let's gather the kids."
"…Yes."
Anyway, avoiding a clash between that crazy cult pharma company and Agent Grape was impossible.
Ryu Jaegwan felt a chill in his chest, but for now, he thought he needed to spot Grape fastest and make them cover their face with a hat or something.
If he said it was to protect the newbie's identity from the cult pharma employees, even his superior would understand.
"There at the fountain! Over there."
"Yes."
But the moment they met Agent Grape at the city center fountain.
"Agent!"
Ryu Jaegwan realized his plan was pointless.
Through the sun catcher he'd been holding like an eyepiece in case of emergency, it was clearly visible.
The newbie agent who noticed them and turned…
"I gathered the kids and sorted them by age!"
Half their face was covered in ulcers.
"……."
Ryu Jaegwan stopped in his tracks.
Cold sweat dripped as his trembling gaze scanned the colleague in child form before him…
A long, umbilical cord-like mass of cells dangled from below the upper body.
Thick flesh lumps flowed from the waist, ulcers hanging pendulously like a tail.
Grotesque and horrific, but due to the underwater city trait and its tail-like appearance…
This biohazard was called a mermaid.
"But playing together is so much fun…"
The agent-turned-baby mermaid smiled and waved.
"Can we stay one more day?"
Seeing the completely infected newbie, the two agents froze pale-faced.