First, We Have to Strip
Bang.
The gunshot rolled out into the distance. Brain matter glittered among the flying scraps of flesh. Jack, completely unguarded, had taken the round far too easily.
“Huh?”
“What the hell are you doing right now?”
In-seo and Eun-hwa stared in shock.
“Did an anomaly get him?”
Only the General Manager stayed calm. She walked toward me without a single wasted step.
Fuck, please let it be an anomaly. Please be an anomaly. Please. Please.
Cold sweat poured down my back. I was drowning in panic. Emily had to be right. Only then would I not have just murdered a person.
“Stay back!”
I swung the muzzle toward the General Manager and shouted. I couldn’t trust anyone. Not her, not In-seo, not Eun-hwa—none of them.
“You anomaly bastard, stop pretending to be the General Manager.”
I decided every single person in front of me was an anomaly. I rejected the Saintess’s words. I rejected my own deductions. My mind, pushed to the absolute limit, felt like it was starting to crack.
“Fuck, it was weird from the start. This insane branch—why was Jack the only one who came out to welcome us? Why does the branch even have residential facilities inside? Why are there people who only appear when you need them and nowhere else?”
Those were the details I’d missed while fighting the mental attack. The American branch was wrong in too many ways. Only Jack had greeted us. The staff numbers were absurdly low. This was the Management Bureau branch that oversaw an entire superpower the size of the United States. It should have had several times the personnel of the Korean branch. Instead it had several times fewer.
“All the Management Bureau staff went out on assignment.”
“Did Jack ever actually say that?”
I’d looked at the empty halls and simply decided that must be the reason. But no one had ever said those words out loud. The idea that “the staff are few because the exploration teams are out on missions” had simply been planted in my head.
“….”
The General Manager’s eyes trembled. They shook exactly the way mine did when I was resisting mental control.
“I’m not falling for it!”
That was just more disgusting acting. I had to get away from these anomalies. I screamed and stumbled backward.
“Wait—”
“Let go. Let the fuck go.”
Foam flecked my lips as I shouted. The crazy anomaly was trying to kill me. I swung a fist at the General Manager’s face—the same woman I’d built physical intimacy with. Shooting her felt wrong, so I used raw violence instead, trying to throw her off.
“Ghk—”
She put me on the floor in a single motion.
Her grip locked down.
“Kieeeeeek!”
Agony exploded through my arm and I screamed.
“Calm down. I understand what you’re saying. Just calm down.”
“I’ll calm down. I’ll calm down.”
She was the real General Manager. She had subdued me without trying to kill me. That was enough.
“Jack, what’s your status right now?”
“Why? Is something wrong?”
Jack’s voice. The same Jack whose head I had just blown off stood up perfectly fine and spoke.
“Ugh.”
The headless Jack tilted what remained of his neck, wearing an expression that said he had no idea what had just happened to him. Jack was an anomaly. I hadn’t killed a person.
“Jack, something’s come up. We’re leaving.”
Was the General Manager in front of me real? What about In-seo? Eun-hwa? Emily? My mouth went bone-dry.
“No rules, then.”
“Or there are rules and we just haven’t found them yet.”
In-seo, finally recovering, answered. The General Manager let out a long breath heavy with self-reproach and self-loathing. She was blaming herself—someone of her rank, and she still hadn’t noticed.
“What are you people? Jack? And why are you like that?”
Emily’s voice. She had heard the gunshot and come down from the break room.
“Anomaly?”
“Emily is not an anomaly.”
I stopped the General Manager from shooting her. I still didn’t know if Emily was truly human, but there was no need to spill blood yet.
“We’re agents from Korea. We already know what’s happening at the American branch. Stand down.”
I also calmed Emily, who had raised her own gun.
“I… I see. I thought I was going to be stuck with anomalies forever.”
Emily lowered her muzzle. She was still human.
“Ahem. Ahem. Everyone, I know how to deal with this anomaly.”
I cleared my throat to draw their attention. I still wasn’t completely sure any of them were real people, but pure suspicion would get us nowhere. For now I would treat them as human.
“Look at Jack’s body. It can’t replicate the intimate parts.”
I grabbed the headless Jack, stripped him, and pointed at the private area that was normally hidden.
“See? The parts that are hard to see are stiff and wrong, aren’t they?”
The flesh there was black and alien. The skin was rigid like wood; the joints bent the wrong way.
“So what are we supposed to do about it?”
“We take off every single piece of clothing and throw it away. We search naked.”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“Do you have a better idea? We could get eaten by an anomaly any second!”
Sorry, In-seo. This is the only way.
“Strip. Now!”
I yanked my own clothes off and flung them. Suit jacket and trousers sailed into the air. I peeled off my pants, then my underwear, and tossed those too.
“Look at me. I’m fine.”
I spread my arms and turned in a full circle so they could see every inch. Once I’d proven there was nothing wrong, I lowered my arms.
“Whoa, that’s a big dick.”
“Shut up.”
I shut the fake Jack up and continued.
“Are you aroused right now?”
The General Manager pointed at my erect cock. It stood straight up toward the ceiling. It wasn’t sexual excitement. It was pure survival instinct that had made me hard.
“Physiological response. I have absolutely no ulterior motives.”
I made sure they understood there was no hidden lust. I had no interest in them as humans. If I just started fucking them, it would be rape. Only when they were anomalies could I dump a load without responsibility.
“Strip. Right now. If you don’t take your clothes off, I’ll decide you’re an anomaly.”
“Nngh.”
“You’re Management Bureau agents and you’re embarrassed about getting naked?”
“I’m not an agent, though?”
“So you don’t want to?”
“I do.”
Eun-hwa quietly removed her clothes. I was the only human male present, and she and I had already had sex, so she felt no hesitation about stripping.
“If you’re Management Bureau agents, do your duty! Are you going to keep stalling?”
Hurry up and strip! I need to check with my own two eyes whether you’re real or fake.
“F-fine.”
In-seo took her clothes off. We’d already done everything together—why was she still covering herself? She hid her breasts and her sex with her hands.
“Hehe.”
Eun-hwa, on the other hand, put her arms behind her back as if inviting me to look all I wanted.
“You have a pretty body.”
“Shut your mouth, you anomaly bastard.”
I put a bullet through Jack’s face. The thing still didn’t know when to keep quiet.
“If this is the path for humanity…”
Emily also stripped and set her clothes aside. I forced myself not to stare at her private parts. The way my focus kept drifting was just male instinct; there was nothing I could do about it.
“General Manager, why aren’t you taking your clothes off?”
“…Ugh…”
Everyone else was naked. Only she still wore clothes. Her flushed cheeks made it obvious she was embarrassed about being bare.
“You’re the General Manager and you’re shy? Or was there something clumsy about the explanation I just gave?”
I grabbed Kim Yul-ryeong’s arm and shouted. If there was a better method, I needed her to tell me so I could escape this anomaly next loop—or the loop after that.
“General Manager, answer me.”
“A-all right. I’ll take them off.”
What? There was no other method? She’d just been too embarrassed to strip?
I looked at her with pure disappointment.
“I’m done.”
Kim Yul-ryeong deliberately avoided my eyes. Her face was so red it looked ready to burst.
“Good. I’ve confirmed none of you have any abnormalities.”
I spoke while staring at empty air. If I lowered my gaze even a little, it would land somewhere it shouldn’t.
“Next plan. We go down to basement level 10 and press the button.”
I had realized it. I could not solve this insane anomaly alone. I had to press the button on the Causality Regenerator that existed on B10. It would only burn a few regression counts and let a few more people remember the previous loop.
“What? Basement level 10? There was a place like that?”
Emily looked startled at the mention of B10.
“That’s way too dangerous. We can’t just leave it to luck like last time.”
“What do you mean, last time? Weren’t you the ones who met the people who became sacrifices for the cult?”
In-seo tried to stop me; the General Manager looked confused by information that didn’t match the testimony.
“Hehe.”
Eun-hwa just grinned as if she knew nothing at all.
“So do you have another method? You don’t.”
This was the conclusion I’d reached after careful thought. The anomaly had already seized the eastern United States. By this afternoon it would take the entire country. Given enough time it might conquer the whole world the way the mannequin anomaly had. The conditions for using the Causality Regenerator were more than satisfied.
“Fine. Let’s go down.”
The General Manager made the decision. We would use the Causality Regenerator.
“Form up and board the elevator. If anyone’s body shows an abnormal reaction, say so immediately.”
“Ugh… is that a bad thing?”
“It won’t hurt you.”
I soothed the trembling Emily. As long as only my regression counts were used, no harm would come to her.
We boarded the elevator while watching one another. I pressed the button for B2. Silence. We were all staring at each other’s naked bodies; there was nothing to say.
Ding—
The elevator reached B2 and we stepped out at once. We hurried across to the elevator on the opposite side.
“Mister, the Saintess is trying to take over my body again.”
Eun-hwa’s words stopped me cold. When the Saintess spoke, I had to listen.
General Manager’s pussy. Emily’s pussy.
My eyes kept trying to wander. I clenched my teeth and forced them away.
“Eun-hwa?”
She ran up and grabbed me. Her movements were urgent.
“The room! Look at the room!”
Right now Eun-hwa was the Saintess. At her words I scanned the room. A strange ceramic object sat inside.
“Why is this here?”
“It’s the same as the ones on the first floor.”
The Saintess pointed with her palm.
“Every single room has the exact same item lined up.”
It was true. Identical objects stood in rows in every room. Had the anomaly that seized the eastern United States deliberately swapped out the anomalous objects?
No way.
Anomalies never did anything useless. Whatever this meant, it was a scheme to fuck us over.
“Just run! Reach B10 and think later.”
At the General Manager’s order we ran. We reached the elevator and pressed the button for B3. The car began its slow descent.
What is this. What the hell is happening.
An unknown terror crushed my chest. The fear that I might die if I made one wrong move squeezed the air from my lungs.
Clunk.
The elevator arrived at B3.
“Huh? Where did Eun-hwa go?”
One person short. Eun-hwa, who had been right beside me, had simply vanished.
“Sh-she just disappeared. Right in front of my eyes.”
Emily bit her lip.
“Show me the pendant.”
“Ah, yes.”
I checked Emily’s pendant. It still held its light. She had not been mentally controlled.
“We keep moving for now.”
“Okay…”
As long as the Causality Regenerator activated, the vanished Eun-hwa would return. We headed for the next elevator.
In-seo disappeared. We headed for the next elevator.
The General Manager disappeared.
We headed for the next elevator.
Emily disappeared.
We reached B8.
Only I remained. Alone again. No one left beside me.
I pressed the button for B9 by myself.
Ding—
The elevator arrived at B9. Through the opening doors I saw the interior of the Mutter Museum. As if refusing to let me reach the Causality Regenerator, the space had been swapped for the art gallery instead of B9.
“Ha. Ha…”
I saw what had become of every missing companion. They had been turned into museum exhibits and placed off to one side.
“Fuck it, I don’t care!”
First I’d touch her pussy and think later. I reached out and laid my hand on the body of the General Manager’s statue.