The One Person Factory
Let's not get cocky. When you dip into all sorts of stories, you occasionally stumble across cosmic horror. The fear of the universe. From the vast perspective of the cosmos, humans are truly specks of dust, insignificant little nothings. Just as we look at ants, the outer gods see us as equally pathetic. So a single step from them claims countless lives. A flick of the hand, and more perish. A mere breath, and hordes die. Like bugs. Humans are utterly powerless before monsters.
Every time I hear that kind of thing, I think to myself: The animal that's killed the most humans in this world is the mosquito. And fleas were one cause of the plagues that took so many lives, right?
"This place is unsanitary."
Lisa muttered that one line. Black smoke billowed from a massive, towering smokestack. The building looked like a warehouse. Standardized steel panels stacked up into a rectangular shape, alternating white and light gray sheets that gave it a plain, functional vibe. And under the eaves of the roof hung a sign: One Person Factory.
Please Find My Father
📍 You've tracked a missing person here to this bizarre factory.
🎁 This factory is run by monsters, not humans. The moment you're caught, you'll become part of the production line.
📍 Find the missing person while avoiding the monsters.
"Hoo..."
I let out a sigh. I told you, didn't I? Even if you stay put, bad luck can get you killed by a monster in this world. Take the wrong subway stop, and bam—you're swept up in an anomaly like this.
I cautiously peered inside the factory. Monsters were there.
#One Person Factory Manager
• The factory is divided into facilities, employees, and the factory manager.
• All employees share identical appearances, with no distinguishing features observed between individuals.
• If an employee disappears or is destroyed, the exact same number is replenished the next day.
• The replenishment process was not observed.
The monsters were working the production line. You could call them a mashup of zombies and robots. Gaunt to the point of emaciation. Where eyes should be, camera lenses glowed red. Unknown mechanical devices were grafted onto their bodies here and there. A drill where the left hand should be, a chainsaw where the right hand ought to go.
Whirr...
Something came down the production line. A naked old man. Identical old men kept descending at regular intervals. The old man didn't twitch—whether asleep or dead, who could say.
The waiting "employees" grabbed the descending old man's neck.
Greeee!
With a roar of engines, they sawed into his nape. They tossed the severed head onto another rail. Identical heads moved along like conveyor-belt sushi.
Waiting "employees" sawed them open. They pried off the skull caps, separating brains from the rest of the heads.
The headless torsos rolled on. Waiting "employees" sawed them in half—upper and lower body. They split the upper body vertically. Yanked out the guts, sorted the organs, and placed them precisely.
The leftover old men's heads started piling up in a trash bin.
"Urgh..."
Watching what went on in the factory was more horrifying than the monsters themselves. Like a human version of a chicken processing plant. This was a factory that dismantled humans.
"What an intriguing factory. But how can there be multiple identical humans?"
"...They kidnap missing people and clone them."
Then disassemble and process the clones like that. So the original missing person was probably still alive. They'd need to keep producing copies that looked just like them.
Whether those copies had life or consciousness... I didn't know, and I didn't particularly want to.
No matter how deep you think about it, this place was still a horrific factory. Better wrap up this anomaly quick and head home.
#One Person Factory Manager
A power supply device exists in the 2nd-floor control room. Stopping or destroying this device halts everything except the factory manager.
Maybe because it was a side quest, the monster's weakness was straightforward. Like any stealth horror game, just sneak past the monsters to the 2nd-floor control room.
And we had Queen Ari on our side.
"Ari, can you lend a hand?"
At my words, Ari nodded.
Weeeeng—
The buzz of flies started up. Who knows where they came from—suddenly, they were swarming around us. The flies buzzed busily, then gently landed on the "employees'" shoulders.
And... nothing happened.
...?
"Not working."
"Huh...?"
"My power doesn't work."
Ari said that.
...What?
Ari's power doesn't work...?
"Wait, doesn't it work on monsters too...?"
I panicked. This wasn't in the plan...
Last time, we fooled the Carnival Chef with Ari's power, right? I glanced at Lisa herself, and she nodded like yeah, that's right.
Why? Why could she lower the Carnival Chef's perception but not these "employees'"?
Was the One Person Factory Manager way higher rank than the Carnival Chef?
Or...
'...Maybe 'cause they're machines?'
I snuck another peek at the "employees." No matter how you sliced it, they looked half-zombie, half-robot. Zombieoids, or whatever. Their work was super mechanical—no hesitation, no deviation.
...Those machines on their bodies weren't just for show. They probably served some function. Maybe they were closer to machines than zombies.
"Ugh... Nothing ever goes easy in this world..."
It wasn't that shocking. I never assumed Ari's power worked on every monster.
...No choice but to go straight in.
What can you do.
"Mayuri, we just need to reach the 2nd floor?"
We were prepping to sneak in when Lisa spoke up.
"Yeah, just the 2nd floor. But the stairs are inside the building, so..."
"Is that so? I think we can solve this more simply."
"How?"
Lisa smiled faintly and raised her hand. In it... a kitchen knife.
Uh...
"Wh-why do you have a kitchen knife...?"
"I didn't bring it. A chef treasures her knives like part of her body. A knife is a chef's hand, after all."
Swish.
Lisa raised her other hand. A cleaver.
...Just like Ari controls flies, Lisa could summon kitchen knives. Her chef outfit made it look plausible. But her pale skin made her holding those knives feel eerie.
"You're my guest, Mayuri. A chef can't inconvenience her guests."
With that, Lisa strode forward. Bold as brass.
One "employee" spotted her. But Lisa was already right beside it.
Crack!
Lisa brought the cleaver down on the "employee"'s neck.
"When you end a life, do it in one stroke. Tormenting ingredients ruins the flavor. And you didn't know that?"
Slice.
She cut clean through. A neat cross-section on the neck.
Then she jammed the kitchen knife into its chest.
Whoosh!
Blood sprayed like a fountain.
"And blood must be drained, or the meat gets that gamey smell. Common knowledge. But sawing it rough with a chainsaw? No draining? In this unsanitary place?? Rude."
Thud.
She yanked the knife from the chest and flung the "employee" to the floor.
Then she licked the blood off her hand.
Tasteless. Useless for cooking. Not even worth studying as an ingredient.
Lisa muttered.
Crash!
The production-line "employees" charged all at once. Surrounding us from every side.
Lisa swung her cleaver regardless.
Greeee!
A drill aimed for her heart but bounced off the cleaver's flat. It spun furiously, trying to gouge, but not a scratch or dent.
Lisa gripped the kitchen knife reverse and stabbed its nape.
Stab!
Blood spurted; she twisted the blade. That quick move ended it. She shoved the corpse forward like a shield.
Drills and chainsaws stabbed into the shield-corpse.
Once its job was done, Lisa tossed it and swung knife and cleaver again.
Hmm...
"...Never piss off Lisa."
I muttered to myself. You never mess with someone who's already got the blade.