Item Duplication

I gathered intel while pinning down the gallery members' locations. Every last one of them had ended up somewhere that made no sense. If they'd been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠stranded somewhere recognizable the way I had, finding them would have been easy — but each location was frustratingly vague.

"We're here. Get out."

At the Team Leader's word, I opened the door and stepped outside. A massive military installation built on the outskirts of Sejong City. Soldiers and police stood guard around the facility with iron discipline.

And it still fell apart.

Even a place like this had eventually been swallowed by an anomaly and collapsed. The Body Snatcher anomaly — I still couldn't begin to estimate how powerful it really was. I couldn't even understand why something like that had appeared in the first place.

"Ah, Exploration Team 9?"

Kim Yul-ryeong, the General ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Manager, had arrived ahead of us and was already walking our way.

"General Manager, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be at the Management Bureau right now?"

"Business. Information I can't share with you."

Kim Yul-ryeong matched the image in my head perfectly — blunt, cold, and utterly emotionless. Unlike the friendly receptionist noona I'd expected to be warm, she lined up with the mental picture exactly.

"Is this the new hire?"

She meant me. I squared my shoulders and looked Kim Yul-ryeong in the eye.

"Yes."

"Hopefully you'll last a while."

She muttered it without a shred of feeling and walked into the building. The attitude of someone who didn't expect me to last long at all. Her indifferent words stung a little.

We shared the heat of our bodies, didn't we? Where the hell did that go?

Her casual dismissal left me slightly wounded. I'd single-handedly held back the end of the world, and this was the treatment I got? A flicker of resentment stirred in my chest.

So I can never do it with General Manager Kim Yul-ryeong again…

The most unfair part was that I couldn't sleep with her anymore.

"Kh."

I swallowed the bitterness and headed inside. The layout was similar to a museum — items sealed behind reinforced glass, with descriptions mounted in front of each display case.

"This way. Follow me. We're lucky — a lot of items came in recently."

Was that really luck? The more items that came in, the more people had probably been ground up to get them. How many anomalies were out there that items kept pouring in like this? A chill ran down my spine.

"This is the section for new hires."

Team Leader Seo In-seo led me to a small alcove tucked into a corner of the building. The number of items was pitifully low. There wasn't a single high-grade piece — clearly no interest in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠investing in rookies who were going to die soon anyway.

Die as little as possible. Die as little as possible.

My revival count had dropped to nine. If my luck was bad enough, I could die even with the regression ability. I needed a way to push forward while dying as few times as possible.

"How about this? An item that lets you escape from an anomaly."

She held up a thin rope. Used properly, it could leap across space and bring you back to the real world.

"No. I'd rather have something that helps me resolve anomalies, not escape them."

Something like the Body Snatcher could show up again. An escape item would be useless against a thing like that. Instead of a way out, I wanted something that let me stand and fight.

"Then what about this? A handgun that uses blood to damage anomalies. Even a civilian can put up a fight with it."

The Team Leader picked up a pistol. A gun that drew blood to strike at anomalies. Attractive — but not what I was looking for.

"That's not the kind of thing I want either. Is there anything that can read an anomaly's inner thoughts?"

"If something like that existed, management-level staff would have claimed it first."

She waved me off. I pointed at a dust-covered item with my finger.

"What's that one?"

An item labeled Magic Conch Flute. Pull the string, and the conch would offer advice on your current situation.

"This? This is no good. You'll end up getting killed by an anomaly while using it."

Even hearing that, the temptation was hard to resist. The downside was that you had to speak your current problem out loud to the conch to get advice. Another downside was that you had to hold it to your ear to hear the answer. But right now, the conch was the only thing I needed.

For a limited regressor, the only thing that mattered was a method to escape anomalies within the remaining count. Of everything here, this was the only item that fit.

I should at least be able to touch a pussy, right?

If not, a nipple would do. Avoiding death. Screwing anomalies. I couldn't give up either one.

"I'll take this."

Overriding her objections, I put my hand on the conch flute.

"Oh."

A new ability had unlocked. Item Duplication — just from the description, it looked incredibly useful. I tried touching the other items as well.

I hit N and asked the Magic Conch Flute a question.

Magic Conch Flute. If I grab Team Leader Seo In-seo's chest right now, will I get yelled at?

Yep!

Oh, it worked. Asking the Magic Conch Flute silently in my head still counted as a valid question and answer.

Khhhk — I can touch anomaly pussy.

Touching anomaly pussy: fully viable. From now on, no matter what anomaly showed up, I could feel them up without reading the room. One hundred anomaly pussy touches: fully viable. One hundred rounds of sex: also fully viable.

"On second thought, Team Leader, I think your recommendation is better."

I took the handgun from Seo In-seo's hand. Two items secured. While other new hires were stuck with one, I was running two at once.

"Good call. Use it too much and you'll bleed out. Don't go through more than two magazines."

"Yes, ma'am."

With two items locked in, we returned to the Management Bureau. Bureau work always ran on the same loop. The Management Team handled the anomalies stored underground — once successfully contained, an anomaly's management difficulty dropped several tiers. The Search Team's job was to find anomalies before they could harm civilians. The Exploration Team sat on unlimited standby until an anomaly was discovered.

Today, no anomaly had been found, so we were waiting again.

"I wonder what happened to Eun-hwa. Curious."

Eun-hwa hadn't shown up for her part-time job. According to the original timeline, she should have come in for the interview — but she never even appeared. I knew her phone number. But the only thread connecting Eun-hwa and me had been severed, leaving no way to reach her again.

I want to call her. I want to do it with Eun-hwa again.

Bzzzt. Bzzzt.

"Eun-hwa?"

I shot to my feet in shock. Messages from Eun-hwa were actually arriving one after another.

But why?

The link between Eun-hwa and me had been cut. Her messaging me first made no sense.

Check first.

I opened the messages she'd sent.

"A strange woman?"

I tilted my head. Couldn't she just call the police? But urgency bled through every word of Eun-hwa's message.

I have to go in person.

I decided to head straight to Eun-hwa's house. Along with her phone number, I'd learned where she lived in the previous loop.

"I need to step out for a bit."

I got permission and ran for Eun-hwa's place. If the woman was an anomaly, I'd deal with her myself. If she was just a regular weirdo, I'd call the police for them.

"Unnie? Uh… she was here until a little while ago?"

I arrived at Eun-hwa's house. When I rang the doorbell, the person who answered was Eun-hwa's little sister. She tilted her head, confused. Her reaction told me everything. Eun-hwa had been taken by the anomaly that came to her door and was gone.

How?

We'd been texting without any problems just moments ago. Reading the messages Eun-hwa had sent, I headed back to the Management Bureau.

"What are you doing?"

"Someone I know was kidnapped by an anomaly, I think."

Back at the Bureau, I reported the facts to the Team Leader. She retained memories from the previous loop. If I explained Seong Eun-hwa's trail, I could skip the background and get straight to the point.

"Oh — so Eun-hwa kept her memories too."

No need to ask why. With Seo In-seo as living proof, Eun-hwa could have regressed with her memories intact as well.

"Looks like she was kidnapped by an anomaly. I'll put out a notice to the Search Team."

Team Leader Seo In-seo left. Back home, I couldn't sit still for the anxiety. Eun-hwa — the woman I'd given my virginity to — had vanished. At the time I'd taken her virginity, she'd been nothing more than an anomaly locked in a behavioral loop, but—

I put out a call for help on the gallery. Better to lean on the collective consciousness of the gallery than try to solve it alone.

The answer came from an unexpected place.