False Light
"Gah."
I was back at square one.
Out of habit, I posted something to the Gallery and waved my arm. The sensation of what the mannequin anomaly had done to me still lingered on my skin.
Ugh... There are still so many things I don't understand.
I'd never had much certainty in life, but one thing was clear. If I kept dancing on the board this thing had set up, I would die over and over without end.
I have to get off the board it's laid out.
Playing in an anomaly's palm had no end in sight.
"That's the transport vehicle carrying Seraphina. It was a request from the American branch, so even I don't know the reason."
I boarded the transport vehicle. Then I returned to my room and waited for the day to pass.
"Good morning. Sleep well?"
A day gone in a blink. Clutching my heavy head, I headed down to the basement. After finishing my work underground, I made for the Muta Museum.
Everyone else has already been swapped out for anomalies, right?
In-seo, Eun-hwa, the Manager — all of them would have been replaced. The originals would be standing as exhibits in the human museum. But I gave nothing away. If everything went according to plan, they would come back alive and whole.
I chatted with In-seo as if nothing were wrong and headed for the Muta Museum. Once we arrived, I wandered the halls with the group, biding my time, waiting for the other side to make the first move.
Wooooong. Wooooong.
"Currently..."
"Let's evacuate to the bunker."
"Right."
We fled underground with the rest of the party. Watching them file into the bunker as if under hypnosis sent a chill down my spine — once I realized even that hypnotized behavior was an act.
Thud.
The thick steel door locked firmly into place. We shut it and caught our breath. From here on out, this was the main event.
I licked my lips and spoke to the Manager.
"Manager, something's off. Doesn't that broadcast feel way too staged?"
"It does seem that way. We may all already be under an anomaly's influence."
The fake Manager nodded. I already knew he was an anomaly.
At the fake Manager's signal, I approached the shelter door and slowly turned the massive handle.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
As if it had been waiting, the sound of knocking erupted from the other side.
...Is whatever's beyond this door real? Or is it an anomaly?
I had no idea whether the presence beyond the door was an anomaly or a real human being. Certainty eluded me — but I turned the handle anyway.
In the previous loop, I had waited for the knocking to pass. This time, I would open the door.
Thud.
I twisted the handle all the way and threw the door fully open.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa——
A wailing cry of the dead faded into the distance. A cold wind brushed past my ears. I stepped through the doorway and out into the open.
"Look over there."
The fake Eun-hwa pointed toward the entrance. Crimson handprints were stamped across it — blood that had not yet dried. There was no telling where the people who had left those marks had gone.
"This gives me the creeps. Let's move."
Thud.
The bunker door sealed shut behind us. Leaving the bunker at our backs, we pressed forward.
Wooooooo. Wooooooong.
A siren wailed from the ceiling above.
"Is that an anomaly too?"
The fake In-seo pressed herself against me. For a moment, the soft give of her chest stole my focus.
No. This is an anomaly. An anomaly.
I closed my eyes and put myself under self-hypnosis, successfully casting aside the impure lust. Then I opened them again and locked my concentration into place. The anomaly's mental assault was growing stronger by the second. The moment I lost my grip, it would seize my mind and kill me.
"Manager, what do we do?"
"Follow me."
I fell in behind the fake Manager. Last time, trailing after him had gotten me hit by a mental attack and killed. This time was different. I gathered every scrap of focus I had and followed at his heels.
"Manag...er?"
I saw the statue of the real Manager and feigned a dazed, panicking confusion. The anomaly seized that moment to strike at my mind.
I held on.
I weathered the mental assault. Against this thing, all you needed was preparation — then its attacks were easy enough to shrug off.
"Manager... what is going on right now..."
I looked back and forth between the fake Manager and the real one, wearing an expression that said I had no idea which of them was genuine.
"Impressive. You actually held off the mental attack."
In-seo, who had been standing with her arms crossed, tightened her grip. Enormous pressure surged through my arm — hard enough to snap bone.
"Aaagh!"
I collapsed with a scream, clutching the broken arm. The pain was so vast I thought my mind would simply shut off.
"I can see the light. The light will save us."
Staggering backward, I ended up beneath the statue of Eun-hwa. The Saintess was murmuring with her mind completely gone.
"Just give up, mister. Let your heart rest easy. You're all alone now, aren't you?"
The anomaly wearing Eun-hwa's face approached me slowly. A transparent ploy to rattle my mind. I wasn't falling for something that obvious.
I crawled across the floor, putting distance between myself and the fake Eun-hwa, then scrambled up and sprinted for the bunker. I had to get away from that thing first.
I ran mindlessly until I reached the bunker entrance.
Creeeeak.
The bunker door was open. Inside, the place was a wreck of corpses and blood.
"What the hell. Why is it like this?"
Panic seized me. I had confirmed people were still alive in the bunker before I left. But all my eyes could find now were cold, lifeless bodies. Everyone inside the bunker was dead.
The unreal scene blanked my mind for a beat.
"This is your fault. You said we should go outside, and that's why these people died."
The Manager's voice — a voice that should have been outside the shelter — came from right behind me. His hand closed around my throat, ready to snap my neck at any second.
"Stay away!"
I knocked his arm aside and bolted outside, running mindlessly forward until I cleared Hall 7. I reached Hall 8. Then Hall 9.
Strangely shaped anomalies closed in, trying to kill me. They seized me and forced me to my knees on the floor — just like when I had been captured in front of the Management Bureau bunker. But they didn't kill me. They took me alive.
The anomalies approached and opened a book. Light poured out, and I could read the letters written on the page.
It was the same as what had been written in the rulebook. I had seen these letters right before dying in America — only I had been killed by the anomaly born of the light, and so I hadn't remembered.
The thing I feared most was...
My mind went blank. From deep inside my heart, I called up the most terrifying anomaly I had ever known. The mannequin anomaly — the only one I had ever been forced to kill through the Causality Regenerator.
"What is this? I've never seen an anomaly like this."
A startled voice rang out. Through the confusion, a broadcast cut in.
Anomalies prioritize the killing of any anomaly capable of threatening their own life.
The mannequin broadcast anomaly paid me no attention at all. It moved solely toward the light.
"Is it over?"
I came to my senses — fully. Clutching my head, I pushed myself upright and sprinted after the mannequin anomaly.
I reached the final terminus of the fake art museum. Hall 15. The far edge of the gallery.
"Hah. So you're the American Director?"
I approached the Director collapsed in the corner. This man knew how to escape from inside the anomaly. I closed in and seized him by the throat.
"Hey. How do we get out of here?"
"Cough. I can't tell you."
The Director spat blood and shook his head. His faith ran deep.
"You think you can beat the god you follow? That thing is seriously strong."
The ceiling was coming apart — cracked through, on the verge of collapse.
"If you don't want everyone dead, talk. Now."
I grabbed him by the collar and threatened him.
"You have to activate the Causality Regenerator."
"There's no tenth basement floor at the Management Bureau."
The Director's eyebrow twitched. He was stunned that a new hire knew information managed under the highest secrecy.
"It's here."
He gestured for me to follow. When he opened a door tucked into the corner, the Causality Regenerator was waiting inside.
"Press it. Hit this button and you can correct the error. You do it. As you can see, I'm in no condition."
Should I trust those words? In this insane world, no information could be taken at face value.
It's not like I have another option.
I pressed the button on the Causality Regenerator.
Whoosh.
The world flipped over. Everything rocked and reeled. When I opened my eyes, I was on an airplane.
"..."
The Manager furrowed his brow. An unnameable sense of wrongness pressed down on my body.
Why was I here? Until just a moment ago, I had been somewhere that wasn't an airplane at all.
"Come on, let's go."
Eun-hwa, knowing nothing, urged me along. Led by her hand, I stepped off the plane.
"Our mission is..."
Out of habit, I opened the Gallery. And then I saw the post written there.
Ah...
The forgotten memories woke up again. We were currently trapped by an anomaly. The Causality Regenerator I had pressed in that final moment had not been the real one.
"Uuuugh..."
I followed the Manager onto the transport vehicle, clutching my head as I boarded.
This woman was completely useless, wasn't she.
I looked at Seraphina's coffin. A truly worthless anomaly.
Still, even a creature like this has its uses.
She wasn't even fit to be a watchdog — but there was still a place where she could be put to work.
"Puppy."
Did you just address Us?
"Yeah. I called you. Hey — you don't know a single thing, do you?"
....
The Vampire Queen fell silent. She, too, had sensed that something was wrong.
"I'll let you out. You can run wild all you want. Go completely off the rails — I don't care."
Truly?
A simple creature. She loved nothing more than running amok, and never stopped to think about the real intent behind anything.
Actually, that works better for me.
I licked my lips and continued.
"When I give the signal, come out."
Very well.
I struck the deal with Seraphina. Before I knew it, the vehicle had arrived at the American branch.
"Welco—"
Bang.
The moment the door opened, I fired. Jack collapsed with a hole through his head.
"What are you—"
"It's time to wake up from the dream. Don't you remember? You've been here twice already."
In truth, it had been far more than twice — but I couldn't speak of the regressions born from my own deaths.
The Manager, frowning hard, gave a slow nod.
"So I wasn't imagining it."
I had figured someone at the Manager's level would catch on.
"What are you talking about?"
"We've been hit by an anomaly. We've been under mental control this whole time."
"But nothing changes even when we run an RC check?"
"There are anomalies like that, from time to time. Ones that make it impossible to tell reality from illusion."
At the Manager's words, In-seo fell silent.
"This is Emily. An ordinary human, just like us."
While we talked, I brought Emily over. With that, every real human was accounted for.
"I know a way to escape the anomaly. How about we use it?"
I laid out the plan I had already prepared for the Manager. I knew how to run from this world of anomalies.