Anomaly
"I've drawn the blood. What do we do with it?"
"Vampire Queen blood has all kinds of uses. You can make talismans that repel anomalies, or even collapse the existence of weaker ones outright. Best to keep some on you. She's a seriously powerful anomaly — looks like they only managed to break her mind. They never turned the body into a full puppet."
I needed as much blood as I could get. I pulled out syringe after syringe and kept drawing. She was a vampire, so dying wasn't a concern — and she'd already been claimed by an anomaly, so retaliation wasn't either.
"About two liters. That should be enough, right?"
I filled the small test tubes to the brim. Roughly a hundred of them, twenty milliliters each.
Hope I never have to use these.
I hoped I wouldn't need the blood — but I fully expected to use it often. Where else would all the anomalies stored in the Management Bureau basement have gone? They'd broken free and were wandering nearby. Stopping them would take Vampire Queen blood.
"Hey… what's this face?"
Eun-hwa pointed at the wall. A face tucked into a corner, easy to miss at first glance.
"So Hong-cheol was here. Haa… poor bastard."
Ah. So this was Senior Lee Hong-cheol. I leaned in for a closer look at his face.
"Eggs are actually rocks that fell from the moon. Yesterday my shadow went home before I did, even though I never locked the door. Hey, don't you see the blue bird sitting behind your ear? Guess only I can see it."
"Ugh—!"
Holy shit. Nearly jumped out of my skin. Hong-cheol's eyes snapped open and he dumped the words out machine-gun fast.
"Is Mr. Lee Hong-cheol going to be okay?"
"Obviously not. Ignore him and let's go. We've got the Queen's blood — time to do whatever we can."
Her tone assumed the end of the world. With Management Bureau branches collapsing across the globe, humanity's last hope was Senior Seo In-seo and me. Seong Eun-hwa was just a part-timer — not even in the equation.
If things go sideways, I just regress.
I kept it easy. Plenty of regressions left. Worst case, I hit the reset.
I scooped the Vampire Queen into my arms and headed out.
"Hey. What the hell are you carrying?"
"My body pillow?"
"Are you joking right now?"
"Tch. You never know. Just preparing for contingencies."
Senior Seo In-seo's face was terrifying. Too terrifying to meet her eyes.
"What if we run out of vampire blood?"
"You already drew plenty. Even a Vampire Queen doesn't have more than that."
"Isn't there any blood the Bureau pre-drew? We could feed her transfused blood and draw it again."
What if I left her here and never got another chance? I'd never tasted a vampire who hadn't been drained. This loop, I wanted to try it at least once.
"A hundred vials is nowhere near enough."
"Fine. Do whatever you want."
Senior Seo In-seo closed her eyes in surrender.
"Straight to the second floor. The first-floor manager might already be coming down to check on us."
We hurried upward. The twisted, tangled corridors made the climb take far longer than it should have.
"Were you two slacking off?"
The first-floor manager had arrived first and was already looking for us.
"Sorry. Had to use the bathroom."
"I got here thirty minutes ago."
His eyes darkened by degrees. No irises left — just black caves where eyes should be.
This bastard's changing. Becoming an anomaly.
One wrong move and this loop ended here.
Try the Vampire Queen's blood?
Even if it failed, I broke even. I carefully drew a vial and slipped it between my fingers.
"I don't see any anomalies. Where are they?"
"They're stored right here. You can't see them?"
"I can't see them."
"You can't…?"
I closed the distance and flung the test tube.
"Ah—? Uuugh…"
The first-floor manager's face melted. Under the skin there was no muscle — only smooth, polished wood. The exposed flesh vanished in an instant, and his original face returned: pointed fangs, eyes red as blood. A grotesque face.
"Augh. Krrk. KRAAAAAAH—!"
The first-floor manager howled and bolted outside.
"Nice work. He's a ghoul now — no more annoying manager to deal with."
"Can mannequins become vampires too?"
"Don't think in terms of common sense. Anomalies don't work that way."
So even mannequins could be infected by vampire blood. We followed the newly made ghoul of a first-floor manager. He paced in front of the elevator, clueless about how to go up. I pressed the button for him instead.
Ding.
The elevator stopped. Doors slid open with a mechanical groan. The first-floor manager charged through.
"Grrrrrrngh."
"Long time no see. How's first-floor work treating you?"
A lobby employee greeted the first-floor manager like nothing was wrong. The manager sank his teeth into the man's throat.
"Ghk—!"
The bitten employee clutched his neck and collapsed. The first-floor manager stepped over the thrashing body and found his next meal, tearing into flesh. In moments the first-floor lobby was crawling with ghouls.
"Hah. That was satisfying."
Senior Seo In-seo laughed at the sight.
"I don't get it. Why are they doing this?"
"They act on the memories of the bodies they ate. Anomaly logic steers them toward killing humans, but… my guess is about three months. They got hit with Vampire Queen blood and became ghouls, so instead of eating people they'll start eating their own kind."
The way zombies only ate humans, these anomalies would only eat fellow anomalies. Behavior flipped clean opposite of normal ghoul instincts.
"Things are going way too smoothly."
Why had Senior Seo In-seo been crying before? The lobby cleared fast as the ghouls tore into each other. Some climbed the stairs to the upper floors; the rest burst out through the doors.
Screeeech. BAAAAAANG!
Ghouls sprinted across red-light crosswalks and vanished down the street. The only person left in the first-floor lobby was the reception desk lady. As if by design, the ghouls hadn't touched her.
"Remember this. This anomaly broke even the Vampire Queen — her mind, at least. Everything happening now is temporary. The moment the anomaly's true body appears, all of this resets to zero."
Ah. Right. The root cause hadn't been solved at all.
No idea where the source even is.
Where had the origin gone? I couldn't even guess.
"I'm sorry. It's too much. I don't think I can keep that overtime promise."
Eun-hwa couldn't hold on. She wanted to leave. She looked ready to throw up on the spot, so I nodded without hesitation.
"If anything happens, you contact us. Promise."
I gave her some of the Vampire Queen's blood. If trouble came, she could buy time by throwing it at whatever attacked her.
If she dies, I just regress before that.
If Eun-hwa died, there was nothing left to see — I'd regress immediately. Next loop, I'd take the anomaly down.
Kill the first-floor manager on sight, head straight to the ninth floor. Use Vampire Queen blood to cut through the anomalies, negotiate with the president and the politicians—
I ran the optimal route in my head. No clean solution yet, but I'd push as far as I could.
"Hey. What are you doing? You said we were going to the broadcast room."
"Ah, right… Shall we head to the broadcast room first?"
I walked to the reception desk and pulled a prepared hood over the lady's face.
Onahole complete.
One convenient meat toilet, ready for use. I ran my hands over the reception desk lady's body. Every mannequin anomaly that had been gathered in the Management Bureau Building had fled outside. Nothing left to stop me.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Slightly incredulous tone. I pulled out the truth I'd been holding in.
"Ms. Seo In-seo, I'm scared. One wrong move and an anomaly kills me. Or worse — I end up in something so horrific that dying would be the better option."
"And what does that have to do with what you're doing right now?"
"I needed a purpose. Something that would let me keep fighting anomalies. May I continue?"
"Go on."
"I'm a lifelong virgin and a lifelong single. Nothing motivates me more reliably than a woman's body. Sex, sex, and more sex — that was the only light and salt that could save me."
Was I allowed to say this? Whatever. I'd regress anyway. Didn't matter. I poured out everything I'd been carrying.
When I finished, Senior Seo In-seo had her eyes closed.
"…"
Her eyelids trembled. The psychological impact looked severe.
"Why… why… is humanity's last hope… this kind of guy…!"
Sorry for being this kind of guy. But there was nothing I could do about it. Ever since the subway platform anomaly, I couldn't move forward without pussy.
"Vampire Queen pussy, reception desk lady pussy — virginity check commencing!"
Virginity confirmed. Both of them were virgins.
"Both virgins. I'll be enjoying these thoroughly."
I dropped my pants and freed my twenty-centimeter cock. It stood tall toward the ceiling. I advanced on the virgin pussies still sealed by their hymens.
"The reception desk lady's pussy is so tight—nnngh."
She clearly didn't masturbate much. Even focused foreplay barely heated her body.
I'm scared. I'm scared. Fuck, I'm scared.
How was I going to get torn apart this time? Terror made me want to run right now. But standing still meant death.
Right. Time to go up.
I swallowed hard and headed for the elevator. Pressed fifteen and waited.
Ding.
The doors opened with the chime. Grrraaaaah. Kraaaaah. The fifteenth floor was crawling with anomalies-turned-ghouls. The elevator doors had opened right in their faces and they didn't even care.
"Come on, Seraphina. Good puppy."
I tugged the leash around Seraphina's neck and dragged her like a dog on a walk, then opened the emergency stairwell door.
"What are you… doing to me… nn."
Seraphina kept repeating the same lines like an NPC.
Huh? Did her words change a little?
Must be imagining it. If she'd actually come to her senses, I'd already be in pieces.
"I'm putting it in Manager Kim Yul-ryeong's pussy too."
I gathered the three beauties I'd found in the Management Bureau and climbed the stairs. The broadcast room was on the seventeenth floor.
"Senior. Senior, snap out of it. Which one do I smash?"
"Aaaah… just throw the blood at the machines I point to."
The senior who'd checked out of reality sighed and indicated the equipment that needed destroying. I threw test tubes and shattered them. Thirty of the fifty vials gone. Twenty left. I'd burned through them fast, but it was fine. This loop was already a write-off.
"It's not dying."
"Yeah. Looks like the source isn't here."
She sighed and shook her head.
"Go down to the fifteenth floor and grab a phone. I need to call some politicians I know."
I did as she said and dialed. No one answered her calls.
"Uuuugh…"
When every attempt failed, the senior collapsed in defeat.
Nothing else for it.
She'd done her best. I offered my condolences and gathered the three women in my arms. I'd shown the minimum of consideration. Free time started now.
"Come play with me, ladies."
I carried them to the twentieth-floor lounge. The only place left for unhurried sex without interruptions.
"I love you, Manager Kim Yul-ryeong. Marry me."
I held Manager Kim Yul-ryeong's body and whispered love into her ear.
"You… why… are you here…"
Anomaly Kim Yul-ryeong only spat the same fixed lines.
"I love you, reception desk lady. Be my girlfriend."
Next was the reception desk lady. I pressed against her from behind like a dog.
"You're my pet. Bark."
The Vampire Queen was a pet. I yanked her leash and walked her around the lounge.
"Is this heaven?"
I lined the three women up side by side and lay across them. Soft breast cushions cradled my head. For a moment I genuinely mistook this place for paradise.
"Fuck. I'm losing my mind. I'm losing my mind. I'm losing my mind. Somebody just kill me. Fuck, I'd rather die."
The senior who'd been forced to watch the entire spectacle screamed for someone to end her.
"I'm sorry. Please look somewhere else for a bit."
"You lunatic. You should have done that from the start."
Was watching the sex scene that psychologically damaging? Senior Seo In-seo answered through sniffling. I turned her head toward the window.
I was about to sink back into the harem when—
"Hey. We're in trouble."
"What is it?"
"Look out the window yourself."
Kuuuung. Kwaaang.
I approached the glass and looked outside. Dozens of columns of black smoke were rising into the sky.