Escape (1)
"But why are you only telling me that now?"
Had she not gotten enough of a taste of the dick clubbing?
She'd hidden the most important information until the very end.
"She says she was going to tell you, but she couldn't speak because of the dick," the Saintess relayed, taking over from Eun-hwa as if terrified of another round.
"Then you can tell me now. What's happening right this second?"
I grabbed a handful of the Saintess's tits and started interrogating her while working her sensitive spots.
"Hnn. I was just a slightly special human who could only read minds. And only human minds, at that."
I already knew that. The Saintess was an ordinary human. Mind-reading was special, sure, but she was nowhere near the kind of anomaly that would force the Management Bureau to break out a causality rewriter.
"I never had the authority to command or control anomalies. The one whose mind I was reading was a child down in a pit. The Cursed Child is the one who rules every anomaly in this world."
"..."
The anomaly ecosystem ran on pure survival of the fittest. A stronger anomaly could devour a weaker one and turn it into a subordinate. The Body Snatcher had done exactly that in its final moments—swallowing every anomaly it could find just to come after me.
"Every rule of this cult was created by that child. So she could play with us like a little kid playing with toys. All I ever did was read her mind and hand out the rules."
The Saintess was nothing more than a figurehead. The real body of the anomaly was somewhere else entirely.
Whoosh.
A violent gale tore at the simple shelter until it felt ready to rip free at any second. The staff grabbed the civilians and braced themselves.
"The child's angry, so no one gets to run. An exit? She probably made that on purpose just to give us hope."
The Saintess wore a wicked little smile.
"Even if you get two chances, you still can't win. Every last one of you Management Bureau people is fated to die right here. Stay and play with me forever."
"There are other Management Bureau staff here besides us?"
"...Those weren't my words. I was just repeating exactly what that child said."
I tuned out the Saintess and opened the gallery. Time to borrow the power of collective intelligence.
(photo)
Fuck, don't mess with me. What the hell is that supposed to be?
Something had gone wrong on Goe-bung-i's end too. As the anomalies started dying, everything in the cult compound began tearing itself apart.
I gave him the short version of reality. Goe-bung-i would know exactly what I meant.
That was our final exchange. The situation had already hit rock bottom. I never managed to identify the enemy to the end. I'd thought the Saintess was the main body of the anomaly, but the real one was someone else entirely.
In-seo. I'm sorry. I couldn't keep my promise.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I'd thought one coin would be enough to escape this hell. It wasn't.
"Let's play. Let's play. Let's play. Let's play. Let's play. Come play with us. Heeheeheehee."
Eun-hwa's face began twisting into something grotesque. Her power was running wild. Mind and spirit had been seized by the anomaly that ruled the cult.
"What are you doing? An exit just appeared. Just run for it already."
My father-in-law's words made me suck in a breath. An exit had formed, so the correct move was to sprint for it without looking back.
But is that exit even real?
The fear that the real exit might be a fake crushed down on my chest.
"So you're just going to give up?"
In-seo clamped a hand on my shoulder.
"We have to try everything we can."
"Don't worry about my life. I made that decision the moment I became Management Bureau staff."
Her words put the steel back in my spine. Dragging her into this had been my choice. The right thing was to wring every last meaningful result out of this before we went back.
Magic Conch Flute. Tell me. Is that exit the real one?
Dunno!
The power gap had grown so wide that the Magic Conch Flute was useless. But right now it was the only thing that might still help.
Magic Conch Flute. Does Seoul still exist out there, intact?
...Probably?
A different kind of answer this time.
Magic Conch Flute. Is this thing only after me?
Yep! It remembers you! It's pissed as hell that it lost you once. It wants to tear you apart and leave you just barely alive so you'll drown in endless pain. It's going to kill you. It's going to kill you. It's going to kill you. You can't run this time. You can't run this time. You can't run this time.
One fact clicked into place. Low-grade items get hijacked easily by top-tier anomalies. The anomaly was speaking through the Magic Conch Flute.
So now it's only good for groping anomaly pussy.
I'd copied the item for that purpose originally, but it would've been nice if it could still do side jobs. I clicked my tongue in frustration and asked the anomaly directly.
If I run for Seoul, will you chase me?
Yep!
Where's the real exit?
Dunno! Not telling!
Yeah, of course it wouldn't make it easy.
If you don't tell me, I won't play with you. I'll just run away like last time.
One thing still didn't add up. I had never encountered this cult even once. Today was the first time. So why was it talking like that?
Did it notice my regressions?
Probably not. If it knew I could regress infinitely, it wouldn't be acting this leisurely.
Go down to the basement. The real exit is in the basement.
"That one's a fake."
I grabbed my father-in-law's shoulder. The portal that had opened beside the pit was a dummy.
"The real one is in the basement. Hey—where's the basement?"
"Play with me. Play with me. Play with meeeeee."
The Saintess still wasn't lucid. I pressed her sensitive spots with deliberate precision.
"Hiiiii—!"
She let out a sharp cry and clutched her lower belly.
"This cult doesn't have a basement. Not one these people built. The anomaly never made a basement in the first place."
Rule-based ghost story bullshit again. I let out a sigh thick with the urge to be done with all of it. This thing had zero intention of letting us leave quietly.
Grandma's friend has so many new friends now. I don't need to stay locked in the basement anymore. I'm so happy.
A child's laughter brushed against my ear. It felt like my mind was about to crack.
Should I ask Goe-bung-i?
I considered opening the gallery and asking him. Goe-bung-i might know where the basement was.
Would he know better than the Saintess?
No matter how long he'd lived inside an anomaly, he still wouldn't know more than her.
Let's live here forever together. There's light here, food comes out, and it's pretty safe!
Are you just mistaking it for a basement?
I shifted my thinking. This was a child who had been tormented by an anomaly for a long time. Her grandmother had locked her grandchild away in a lightless prison just to keep them alive. If she'd been trapped in a pitch-black cell, she might easily have thought of it as a basement.
"Is there any place like a prison instead of a basement?"
"Over theeeere."
I looked where she pointed. A spot a long way from the pit.
Is the exit in the prison the real one?
Whether to trust my eyes or the words the anomaly itself had spoken—I'd just have to talk it out.
"Has a prisoner locked in that prison ever disappeared the next day?"
"Y-yes. There has."
Her answer gave me a little more certainty. The prison was the real exit.
The prison is the escape route. Info came straight from the Saintess, so it's solid.
"We're heading for the prison. The exit is there."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Then let's get ready."
At my confident words the staff hauled the civilians to their feet. They were ready to trust me and move on the prison.
Trying to run? I'm not letting you go. The other humans can leave if they want, but you? You're never getting out.
Kuuuuung.
The shattered cult compound began reassembling itself. Buildings smashed by the gale knitted back together and rose again. A labyrinth of tangled corridors.
"Hey. You want to live, right? You don't want to spend the rest of your life stuck in a place like this either, do you?"
I whispered into the Saintess's ear. Eun-hwa's body had been seized. I'd dragged her here half by force, yet in the end she never called for help from the anomaly's core and just stayed quiet. Putting all those pieces together, the Saintess clearly wanted out.
"Fine. But that thing really wants you dead, you know?"
"I'll pull the anomaly's aggro. You just focus on getting out alive."
"Got it. I'm counting on you."
The Saintess gave a rotten little smile. Even saying that, I knew she'd throw everything into keeping the group alive and moving. The Management Bureau staff wouldn't just sit still, after all.
"See you on the outside."
I shoved In-seo forward by the back. Standing still accomplished nothing. Remembering the words I'd just spoken, she bit her lip and started walking.
I'm going outside. Show me the way out.
Really? The way out is the real one, you know?
Yeah. I'll play with you nice and long, so open the path outside.
Kudududung.
A path opened in answer to my will. I sprinted straight for it. I never looked back. There was no need.