Emily
It was a week ago.
Suddenly, my item started to lose its light.
"Your item?"
"This one. It can store my faith."
Emily held up a cross pendant.
It was a worthless little thing, covered in rust.
"It wasn't always like this. It used to catch the light and sparkle…"
She said it had suddenly begun to fade. The faith she'd accumulated was being drained away.
If she'd still been inside an anomaly, she would have understood. But she wasn't — she was inside the Management Bureau.
Judging by the state of the item, Emily concluded that the US branch had already been taken over, and she decided to keep quiet. Move too soon and she'd only become the anomaly's next meal.
"But that's all?"
"Yes. That's everything. I decided the US branch had been occupied by the Management Bureau and tried to reach the other branches."
There was almost nothing a low-level Management Bureau employee could do. Focusing on survival was the smarter play.
"So that's why you brought the Vampire Queen."
"I wasn't the one who brought the Vampire Queen. That came down from higher up."
Emily bit down hard on her lip.
"I tried to talk to all of you, but…"
"You don't need to feel guilty."
I soothed Emily as she sobbed under the weight of it. There was nothing she could have done. If her actions counted as a sin, then I — who couldn't help even with the cheat ability of infinite regression — shared the blame.
"Have you pulled yourself together?"
"Yes."
"Good. Let's find a way to deal with this anomaly."
I sat down with the now-composed Emily and started working through options.
"But the anomaly won't even show itself. How are we supposed to solve something when we can't see the enemy?"
"We contact politicians. Someone among them has to know what's going on."
"What? Do you have any basis for that?"
"I can't say, but the basis exists."
Light. America. A scene rose unbidden in my mind.
The period of the mannequin anomaly. The Management Bureau had completely vanished, and there was no way left to manage anything — and the US President had given a speech on the news. Behind him, an intense halo of light had flared up.
The light the Saintess had spoken of before she lost consciousness. The light I'd seen just before dying in the previous loop. And the place had been America. The connection was there, at least to some degree.
Did the Management Bureau keep the anomaly suppressed until it finally blew?
Then why did they go down so helplessly?
During the mannequin anomaly, the Management Bureau had already collapsed and couldn't respond. This was different. Every Management Bureau in the world was still intact.
The power of whatever had swallowed the US branch looked considerable.
Does that mean this thing is on the same level as the mannequin anomaly?
It didn't seem quite that bad. The mannequin anomaly had consumed Management Bureaus across the entire world in an instant. This one was different. It had barely managed to take the US branch and still couldn't expand its reach.
I can't rank anomalies by strength, but…
From what I could see, it was weaker than the mannequin anomaly. A thin thread of confidence took root.
"Politicians? I'm a low-level employee. I don't know where any of those people are."
"Where's the floor that stores the documents?"
"Ah — that I know."
Destination set. We headed for the floor Emily named and pulled the politicians' personnel files.
"We'll take the emergency stairs."
There was no telling what waited inside the elevators. The emergency stairs, at least, were relatively mapped.
Wooooooooong.
Through the wail of the sirens —
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Something was pounding on the door. The anomalies weren't heading for the basement. They were lingering right outside the emergency exit.
Just go down already. Why the hell are you fixated on me.
I had no use for the obsession of an anomaly I couldn't fuck.
"Everything out there is an anomaly. Don't hold back."
"Yes."
I tightened my grip on the item pistol that fired my blood as bullets. Against anomalies, items were the better call.
Clunk!
Emily wrenched the emergency door open. Anomalies that had perfectly replicated In-seo, Eun-hwa, and the Manager came charging in.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Three shots put them down.
Ah, I want to fuck.
I wanted sex. I wanted to grab any anomaly and breed it raw.
But work comes first.
I knew the order of priorities. I crushed the urge down.
"How long can the item hold out?"
"Another week, at least."
Good. That meant I didn't have to worry about her suddenly turning into an anomaly.
I followed Emily to the right floor.
"Found it!"
After rifling through a few folders, Emily came back with a stack of papers.
"We go to this one."
I pointed to the politician living closest. He might not be the cause. Odds were the man knew nothing at all.
But there's no other lead.
The only thread we had was the politicians. Find one and ask about the current situation.
"What do we do? The emergency stairs are crawling with them!"
"We call the elevator."
I summoned it. If the anomalies were clustered around the emergency stairs, the elevator side should be thinner.
Ding.
The doors opened. As expected, there were barely any anomalies inside. We cleared them out and stepped in. I hit the button for the first floor.
I'd kill to grab even one item…
While making small talk with Emily, I'd learned the item warehouse was right next door. The thought of copying something like the Magic Conch Flute and taking it home made me swallow hard.
Focus.
I swallowed again. First floor any second. Anomalies would come running. All I had to do was dodge clean and make it to the transport vehicle.
Ding.
The elevator doors opened.
"…"
We stepped into an American-style house. The moment we left the elevator, a private residence spread out around us. A chill slid down the back of my neck.
"Emily?"
Emily — who should have been panicking — said nothing.
"Emily? Answer me."
"Why? You said we should go to the politician's house."
"Emily? Show me the pendant."
"The pendant? Why would we need that?"
Emily had been taken too. I bit down on my lip, spun, and fired.
"Aaagh—!"
She went down with a scream. I looked past the front door.
Pitch-black darkness sat waiting beyond the threshold. Going back was already impossible.
"Shit—that scared the hell out of me!"
"Haaah."
Emily — who I'd thought was dead — pushed herself upright. A bullet hole through her forehead, eyes gone slack, rising like a corpse. The grotesque sight tore a scream out of me on its own.
"Save me!"
I turned and ran. Deeper into the house. Down into a windowless basement no one could enter from outside, locked the door, and piled barricades in front of it. Only after stacking them into a mountain did I let myself breathe.
"Gahk—!"
A white hand shot out of nowhere and closed around my throat. The grip cut off my air.
When? Where had it come from?
"You startled me. How could you just shoot me like that?"
Emily — hole still open in her head — whispered against my ear. Her hand was ice-cold. A corpse was talking to me.
"Mister, you shouldn't shoot people. Can't you see the hole in my head?"
Eun-hwa appeared from nowhere, irritated. Bullet holes marked her body.
"Ah… uh…"
The Manager, throat punched open, tried to say something. Her voice never reached me.
Crack.
My neck bone snapped. The world spun.
"Gahk—!"
I spat out a breath. The feeling of the bone breaking was fucking vivid. If I could pull my brain out and scrub it clean, I'd pay whatever it cost.
I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die.
I couldn't even sleep. Death after death after death. And I still hadn't found a single scrap of the enemy's true face.
Save me. Save me. Save me.
My mind was at the edge. One more push and it would break. Repeat the same loop ten more times and I'd die from mental collapse alone.
Sex. Pussy. Tits. Please.
Give me back a reason to live. I'd planned to fuck the Manager's pussy and die — and I hadn't even gotten a look at it.
"Uuuuuh…"
Save me. Anyone. Someone please save me. I can't breathe. I'm going to die.
"Uuuuuuuuh…"
I boarded the transport vehicle while posting to the gallery. The Vampire Queen said something. I ignored her completely. I had nothing to say to Baduki.
"Go to sleep early. We'll meet in the morning."
I went into the room I'd been assigned. The sun came up, and work began.
The detestable Jack appeared and started explaining the day's tasks. I stared at the back of his head.
According to Emily, the US branch had been wrong for a week. That meant Jack had almost certainly been consumed by the anomaly too. But that was only about the pendant going strange. I had no proof Jack wasn't human.
What if he was still a real person? Then I'd be killing someone.
What if Emily had already been taken when she met me?
What if the anomaly was being capricious?
What if the anomaly was just trying to fuck with me?
What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?
Kill him.
I shook the noise out of my head. I couldn't stop In-seo and the Manager from being consumed. I drew the item and put a bullet into the back of Jack's skull.