Rewards
Anomaly resolved.
Settling rewards.
◈ Available regressions: 9 → 41
◈ Item slots: +1
Item swaps are limited to once per day.
The rewards had been tallied.
My available regressions had jumped by roughly thirty, and an extra item slot had opened up. I was so worked up I couldn't even form words.
"Khehk."
"You made it back alive."
In-seo, sitting beside me, pulled me into her arms. The faint scent of her sweat and skin dragged my mind back into place.
Is this inside the Management Bureau?
I looked around. The familiar interior of the Bureau stretched out before me. The room In-seo and I occupied was an isolation chamber used for interrogations. I was sitting on a plush mattress.
"I'm alive!"
Holy shit, I was alive! Thank you, Father-in-law. I'll live this second life to the fullest. I closed my eyes and offered a silent prayer of gratitude to the old man.
"So the hero returns."
"Ghk—"
A hand clamped onto the scruff of my neck. My body was hoisted into the air like a puppy dangling from its mother's jaws.
"Save the celebration for later. First, we talk. What exactly happened in there?"
Director Kim Yul-ryeong jerked her chin toward the corner, where a chair sat waiting—the kind routinely used for interrogations.
Click.
The lights went out, and the room transformed into a perfect interrogation chamber.
Not even a minute to rest?
Was the time I'd spent unconscious supposed to count as my break? A Bureau staffer appeared from outside and led In-seo away.
"I'll ask again. What happened in there?"
I rolled my eyes at Director Kim Yul-ryeong's question. I had no idea where to even begin.
"I met my father-in-law, who vanished ten years ago, killed the anomaly that disappeared a decade back, and came home."
What should I hide? Which parts could I bury and which could I surface without getting myself killed? The thinking was short; the decision was fast. I'd summarize it in a single line. Stick to the truth.
"What are you talking about? That was way too abbreviated. And who is this father-in-law?"
No choice. I'd have to pad it out a little.
"I entered the anomaly on my own to find a missing person. Inside, I ran into senior agents who'd disappeared ten years ago. Together, we cleared the anomaly."
One line hadn't been enough, so I'd stretched it to two. That ought to cover it, I figured.
"You're lying right to my face. Bring it in."
Director Kim Yul-ryeong jerked her chin again. Senior Bureau staff wheeled in a massive machine.
"People lie. Machines don't. You'd do well to tell the truth. If this thing catches you lying, you can consider your life forfeit."
Fuck—was that a lie detector? It looked identical to the one Father-in-law had dragged out. My limbs were strapped down and the device was clamped onto my head.
I hate gambling with my life.
I bit down on my lip hard enough to draw blood. Betting my life was the last thing I wanted.
"You've been strange from the start," she said. "Showing up at the Bureau of your own free will. Handling anomalies like you already knew them." She held up two fingers. "And finally—acting however you pleased and walking into an anomaly alone." She raised a third finger, then lowered her hand. "People who know what anomalies are don't behave like that. They either go mad with fear and beg for memory-wipe surgery, or they join the Bureau and fall in with the group. You did neither. No memory wipe. You just fought anomalies on your own. That means either you have an agenda—or you're a complete lunatic."
Was it really that bad? Going through regressions had a way of dulling the terror of death. Of course, right before dying I still lost my mind to pure panic—but still.
"Your psych evaluation came back perfectly normal. Which is why I've been operating under the assumption that you're a plant for some anomaly."
Director Kim Yul-ryeong raised a finger. Her reasoning was entirely sound. If an anomaly with a will of its own—something like the Cursed Child—had gotten its hooks into the Bureau, the whole organization could collapse from the inside.
"I haven't lied. I went into the anomaly, met the senior agents, and cleared it with them."
The lie detector stayed silent. Of course it did—there wasn't a single falsehood in what I'd said.
"I heard the names from Seo In-seo. But none of those names exist in the Bureau's records."
Naturally. Anyone who used the Causality Regenerator was erased from existence itself. Bureau staff couldn't even remember that such people had ever lived. Only their closest family retained a hazy sense that someone like that had once been real. Everyone else lost the memory completely.
"Did Seo In-seo tell the truth? Or did you find a way to bypass the lie detector?"
Director Kim Yul-ryeong stepped closer.
"I'm going with the bypass theory."
Her hand closed around my throat. This wasn't Father-in-law's playful grip. She was genuinely trying to choke me to death.
"Khehk— Basement Level Ten… the seniors who pressed the button on Basement Level Ten and turned themselves into causality—"
The lie detector didn't make a sound.
"Basement Level Ten?"
Kim Yul-ryeong released me.
"How do you know about that?"
"Khehk. Haaah. Because I talked with the seniors."
"Basement Level Ten—the Causality Regenerator. Someone at the General Manager level would know about that, wouldn't they?"
She would, right? Director Kim Yul-ryeong oversaw the entire Exploration Department. The only ranks above hers were the executives. She wasn't Management—she was Exploration's General Manager. Someone at her level had to know about Basement Level Ten.
"…Everyone out."
Lips pressed tight, Director Kim Yul-ryeong dismissed the room. People drained out like the tide going out.
"How do you know about that?"
She closed in and shoved her face toward mine.
I want to do it with the Director again.
Looking at the face of a woman I'd fucked more than once, I felt myself starting to get hard.
Get a grip.
I wrestled my mind back from where it kept trying to wander.
"They told me!"
"Who? The ones who activated the Causality Regenerator?"
"Yes!"
Kim Yul-ryeong's expression twisted into something strange—half belief, half doubt.
"There's no record of what happens to people who press that button."
Was she buying it? Fighting down my erection, I glanced at the Director's lower body. My cock had gone in and out of that place before… Would I get another chance to fuck the Director's pussy? I licked my lips, chewing over a past I couldn't reclaim.
"Fine. I'll believe you. But from now on, you're sticking with me."
"What?"
"You're being transferred out of your team and reassigned under me."
Congrats, you just got promoted, you bastard.
A faint hallucination of a voice drifted past. If the Director had been a man, he probably would've said it just like that. Her unilateral, high-handed decision left me briefly stunned.
"Th-thank you?"
I collected myself and offered my thanks. Whatever her motives, a promotion was still a promotion.
"That's all. You can go."
"Yes, ma'am! I'll see you next time."
I bowed at a perfect ninety degrees and walked out of the interrogation room.
"Hmm."
Before heading home, I tried taking the emergency stairs down to the basement. There was no visible path downward at all.
"Whatever. I'll figure it out later."
That wasn't the priority right now. I had a mountain of real problems to think through—no time to sweat the small stuff.
"Nothing from Goe-bung-i, huh."
There'd been zero contact from Goe-bung-i, who'd bolted ahead of me. Just like the countless Gallery users who'd vanished before I ever arrived, he'd wiped his trail clean and never resurfaced.
"He's probably doing fine."
Worrying about a silent Goe-bung-i wasn't going to produce any answers. I decided to deal with the problems right in front of me first.
"In-seo already texted me to head home without her."
A message had come through from In-seo. As team leader, she had reports to write and a mountain of work waiting. There was a reason they'd cut me loose—getting the story from Team Leader In-seo was more reliable anyway. I wanted to help, but as a low-level grunt, the best help I could offer was staying out of the way.
"I wonder how Eun-hwa's holding up."
I dialed Eun-hwa's number. The ringtone cycled twice before someone picked up.
"Who is this?"
Not Eun-hwa—her little sister answered.
"I used to work part-time with Eun-hwa. Is she doing okay?"
"Unnie came back, but something's really wrong with her!"
So the Saintess had come back with her after all.
"So you're this body's little sister? I'll be counting on you."
Eun-hwa's voice cut in. The Saintess, currently occupying her body, was addressing the younger sister.
"She suddenly brought home cigarettes and started smoking. She's drinking, too—Unnie's acting so weird."
"I'll come by your place later."
"What? Shouldn't you come right now?"
"She's fine at that level."
She'd nearly spent her entire life as an anomaly's servant inside a cult. A personality that had turned a little rough around the edges was, relatively speaking, a best-case scenario. If the Saintess wanted a comfortable life in this world, she'd keep her head down and avoid stirring up trouble.
"I'm going home to rest today."
I went home, showered, and collapsed into bed. After so long away from a real mattress, sleep hit me like a truck.
The next morning, I clocked in at the Management Bureau like always.
"Mr. Seol In-yul, you've been summoned. Please report to Director Kim Yul-ryeong's office."
At the front desk lady's word, I headed for Director Kim Yul-ryeong's private office.