The Truth
"I'll release her."
"Alright."
With the General Manager's permission, I undid the seal.
I'd already finished talking things over with the Vampire Queen.
"I didn't think you'd actually let me out."
The Vampire Queen sneered as she climbed free of her coffin.
"As promised, I'll eat you last."
She walked past me and stepped into the Management Bureau.
KWAANG.
A roar thundered through the building, and cracks spiderwebbed across the ceiling.
The Vampire Queen was roaming the halls, killing every employee she came across.
"Is this really the right call?"
"It is."
Not a guess — a certainty.
The only real humans left in this world were us.
"This world isn't real."
That was why I'd freed the Vampire Queen. Since this world was fake, I could release her as much as I wanted. The only genuine humans here were Emily and the people in our group.
This world was copied. By an anomaly.
This entire world was a counterfeit created by an anomaly. The proof lay in the anomalous entities sealed in the Management Bureau's basement. Except for the first floor, every other level held only a single entity that had been endlessly duplicated — like a game cloning items without limit to save on rendering. This thing had filled every empty space with its own sacred relics.
We touched the porcelain and got mind-controlled into this place.
That was the porcelain's ability. Touch it, and you are "invited into a space of your own." That "space of your own" was this world — the other world the anomaly had spoken of.
The reason I always lost my memories after the light burst out was because of the mannequin anomaly.
Deus ex machina. Like a god lowered onto the stage by a machine, the false light played at divinity. It copied whatever its target feared, displayed it, then personally slew the anomaly and basked in faith and worship. Looking only at its creation-related powers, this thing rivaled a god.
But it couldn't even beat the mannequin anomaly it had copied itself.
The creator loses to its creation. Like the Frankenstein complex, it was fated to die at the hands of what it had made. That was why I always lost my memories after seeing the light — because after the light appeared, I always died to the mannequin anomaly before I could come to my senses.
"What if the Vampire Queen wins?"
"The Vampire Queen loses. She can't win."
She could not achieve victory. As a top-tier go player, she had already been consumed by the light and mind-controlled. In all the time since arriving in this false world, Seraphina had never once broken out of her coffin. Her job was to cause as much chaos as possible and open cracks in this world.
We reached the basement. Inside the containment rooms, identical sacred relics stretched out in a line.
"Eun-hwa, there should be an artifact among these that says something different. Find it for me."
We'd entered this world by touching the porcelain. Then we could leave the same way.
If there isn't one, I'll have to find another method.
It was a pathetic god that lost to a fake mannequin anomaly — but a god was still a god. Powerful enough to create and manage an entire world. There was no way to collapse the false world itself.
"This one."
I forced open the door of the room Eun-hwa pointed to. A porcelain painted with a bizarre image of an ancient angel sat stored in the center of the room.
"I'll go first."
This required staking a life. To confirm whether my theory was right, I had to risk mine first. I took a deep breath and picked up the porcelain.
Item duplication complete.
Successfully escaped from the false world.
Settling rewards.
Regression count increased.
"General Manager Kim Yul-ryeong. General Manager Kim Yul-ryeong, respond."
"Someone answer. Agent Emily. Why is there no word after deployment?"
Static from the radio hammered against my eardrums. Clutching my ringing head, I grabbed the handset.
"HQ, this is the deployment team that transferred to the U.S. branch. Reporting successful escape from the false world."
My memories came flooding back — not the ones the anomaly had rewritten, but the real ones.
We didn't take a commercial flight. We flew to America on a Management Bureau military transport.
We'd been moving Seraphina to the U.S. branch for escort. A dedicated aircraft, not a civilian one. The moment we landed at the American airport, U.S. branch staff had been waiting to greet us. But every last one of them was a fake human under the anomaly's control. Through a sacred relic of the false god that had been planted on us in secret, we'd been pulled into the false world.
There's no way they'd split up the escort for a top-tier anomaly like Seraphina.
Even the part about boarding a regular plane to America had been fabricated. Separately transporting a top-tier anomaly made no sense from the start.
"Where's the General Manager?"
"She'll be out shortly."
"How many survivors?"
"I'll check."
I surveyed the transport. Escorting the Vampire Queen was a major operation — a considerable number of personnel had been pulled for this mission.
"Of the twenty-one Korean branch personnel, four successfully escaped. One from the U.S. branch."
"Ugh…"
"Mm?"
While I was reporting to HQ, people began waking one by one.
"Could you handle the report for the General Manager?"
I handed my phone to the General Manager. As a new agent, this kind of work didn't suit me at all.
"Hey. Hey?"
I moved from person to person, trying to wake the other agents — slapping cheeks, grabbing collars, shaking them hard. But no one opened their eyes.
"If you don't escape, you don't wake up. That's the kind of ghost story this is."
Anyone claimed by the ghost story could only wake by escaping. Their consciousness and soul were held hostage by the anomaly.
What happens if they get hunted by the anomaly in this state?
Does their real-world body become the anomaly's property? Or do they end up permanent vegetables?
"Let's report the casualties. There's nothing more we can do here."
"…"
At the General Manager's words, I lowered my head. Was this really the best we could manage? Wasn't there some way to save more people?
"What if I go back in myself?"
I wanted to save every life that could still be saved. Even if it meant staking my own, that was how I felt.
"Casualty assessment complete. All U.S. branch personnel except Emily are presumed dead. No civilian casualties yet, but civilian losses are expected shortly."
The voice on the radio didn't stop.
"Next report. The False Light is growing stronger. The number of humans consumed by the False Light is rising. Every time a human is taken, its power increases. Tell us the escape method. We need to eliminate the anomaly before civilian casualties escalate."
That damn Bureau Director bastard. Not content with falling to the anomaly, he was leading the charge to destroy the world.
"Employee Seol In-yul."
The General Manager held out the radio.
"You're the only one who knows this anomaly well. You make the report."
"…"
I took the radio and organized everything I'd learned about the False Light.
"I will now report the methods I've identified for managing the False Light, the false world, and the false sacred relics."
1. Touching the porcelain transports you into the false world. Touching someone who has already lost consciousness from contact with the porcelain also transports you into the false world.
2. Mind manipulation occurs inside the false world.
3. An item condensed with faith must be kept on your person to defend against mental attacks. However, if you encounter the core of the false world — the False Light itself — even the item is useless.
4. Any rulebook encountered inside the false world is a lie. Do not look at the book. Do not let the anomaly overpower you. The moment you are subdued, you will be replaced by the anomaly.
5. The escape method is the same as the entry method. You must exit through a sacred relic. Among the dozens of duplicated relics, only a single one serves as the exit. The false god knows this method as well. To escape, one person must serve as bait.
"That is all."
I finished the report and lowered the radio. I didn't believe the upper brass would actually use this to stop the False Light.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going back in."
I prepared to re-enter the false world. Of course, I wasn't going in blindly.
Right after using the fake Causality Regenerator — when time had rewound — if it had remembered us, it could have simply rushed over and killed us on the spot. But the False Light had taken no action. So I'd formed a theory: by copying the Causality Regenerator, had it also forgotten its own memories? An anomaly that had been killed by a mannequin anomaly it had personally copied might have imperfectly duplicated the Causality Regenerator and lost its memories in the process.
If so, there was a chance. Go into the false world, save as many people as possible, and get them out.
"Don't we need to press the button on basement level ten?"
"I don't know how you know about that button… but it requires a sacrifice."
A regenerator that activated with the lives of twenty-one Management Bureau employees as collateral. An object that demanded a steep price. But if I pressed it, no sacrifice was needed. It just burned through my regression count instead.
"B-but last time…"
I pressed down on In-seo's shoulder. The truth about the mannequin anomaly was something that could not be spoken.
"Eun-hwa, coming with me?"
"Yes!"
Eun-hwa grabbed my hand.
"I want to go too."
"In-seo, you stay with the General Manager and hold those things off."
I pulled In-seo aside. The enemy wasn't only nearby. Fake U.S. branch Management Bureau employees who'd noticed our escape were already charging toward us.
"I'm counting on you two!"
I clasped Eun-hwa's hand and touched one of the Management Bureau employees still collapsed in unconsciousness.
My mind plunged into a deep abyss.