I Look Forward to an 'Honest' Review ^^

"Alpha. You absolute bastard."

The curse echoed through the small room.

The man was sunk deep into a high-end sofa, glaring at the large screen. On it, two men in hazmat suits were displayed. He already knew what came after from the report. He had no desire to watch it. But this was an anomalous space, and it was better not to break the rules carelessly. Even a friendly anomaly could turn into a monster when it got angry.

The man reread the rules written beneath the screen.

"Bullshit. Even the tone is goddamn irritating."

He let out a sigh. If he had to watch it anyway, he might as well watch it with his head held high. Fearlessly, he picked up a piece of popcorn and popped it into his mouth.

Crunch—!

The crisp texture, as if freshly popped, and the salty flavor lingered in his mouth. Nothing strange about it. He ate another handful, and there was no sign of his body transforming. His mind was fine too. No—considering the video he was about to watch, his mind was about to stop being fine, wasn't it?

"Fuck."

As the video properly began, the man's stomach churned. Restless, he chugged his cola, and the carbonation slid down into his stomach, forcing the nausea back under control.

"Maybe walking in here alone wasn't such a great idea."

He'd taken it all in stride, but now that he was face-to-face with the actual footage, he regretted stepping up so confidently.

He'd never wanted to join the Anomaly Response Service in the first place. He'd finished his military service with nothing to do, decided some quasi-civil-service gig was better than nothing, sat the interview half-heartedly—and somehow walked right through it. Five years on, he'd been through all manner of bizarre shit, but nothing had ever been this fucked.

This went beyond the fears a salaried man should have to endure.

"This is what serving your country looks like, right."

Forcing the rationalization, the man turned his eyes back to the screen.

And so the hellish viewing session ended, and credits scrolled into view.

Reading those words, the man raised a middle finger toward the screen and spoke.

"The popcorn was tasty. The cola should be Zero—it'd be nice to give customers a choice. The video was... fuck. I never want to see it again. One star. No, minus five."

When told to leave a review, he did not hide his revolting feelings. The moment he finished that last sentence, the text on the screen changed.

The screen answered him with what could only be described as mockery.

"What? Rejected?"

"You're the one who said write it honestly! I said it was disgusting!"

The flat rejection left the man with a dazed expression.

"Lie my ass!"

Then again, toying with people was the default setting for anomalous entities.

It was even spouting horrifying suggestions now.

"I'd rather gouge my eyes out. I am not watching that again."

The man refused the re-viewing. And then, the phrase honest review made something click.

His earlier review hadn't exactly been a lie. It was true, though, that he'd been thinking things he didn't want to admit.

"Ugh, this is so goddamn infuriating."

Not wanting to answer, the man nibbled at his lip. And he glanced sideways at the action camera. It would all end up spread around in report form, no doubt about it...

"Haah, my life is genuinely fucked."

But there was no other way out. Clutching his hair, the man said it honestly.

"Agh! I want to get laid too!! Is it a crime to think that watching this retarded video?! I'm sorry I'm a virgin, okay!!"

The moment he screamed it out, the screen went dark and the room was swallowed by blackness. Then the whole room began to tremble faintly.

Reading the words floating up on the screen, the man's expression hardened. What had been written in the report came back to him. When escaping from Alpha, the two agents had each gained an anomalous ability.

And now—that turn had come to him.

The man narrowed his eyes. He could sense the ability Alpha had granted him—a familiar sensation, as if it had been his to use since birth. He didn't even need to be taught how it worked.

"Why would you hand this out as a reward?"

The man asked Alpha one last time. There was no answer. Instead, a door on one side of the room clunked open. Beyond it lay a familiar place—the very road where they had pressured Alpha. In front of the door stood three agents in hazmat suits and analysts operating cutting-edge equipment.

The man walked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠out of the room with a face that said nothing happened here. The agents, catching sight of his emergence, murmured.

"Agent Lee Jaehwan confirmed alive. No visible abnormalities."

"Checking mental contamination index. On the low side."

They brought over specialized equipment and ran tests on his condition.

"However, his brainwaves are unstable."

"Mental mutation?"

"No. Just a stress response. His cortisol levels have exceeded the normal range."

"Hmm... Agent Lee Jaehwan. What happened in there?"

When the hazmat-suited agent asked, Lee Jaehwan found it hard to get the words out. Seeing him seem to hide something, the female agent on standby came over.

"Hey, what're you squirming about, you dick?"

"You..."

She was the very female agent who had tossed off that casual sexual harassment remark at him before he went in to contact Alpha. Lee Jaehwan looked at her and decided to try out his newly acquired ability.

"Hey..."

"What?"

"Do you, like me?"

"Why are you asking that out of nowhere?"

When the woman furrowed her brow, Lee Jaehwan pressed her.

"Spare me the questions. Just answer."

"No. I loathe you."

And then the female agent's eyes went wide at her own answer. She was a veteran who had seen it all. She understood instantly what Lee Jaehwan had just done.

"That ability..."

"I knew you didn't like me, but I didn't know it was full-on loathing."

"No—wait, I only said that because of your ability."

"..."

"Honestly? I don't, like, hate you or anything."

Faced with consolation so transparent it hurt, Lee Jaehwan fell silent. The corner of the woman's mouth twitched. Then, with regal hauteur, she jerked her chin at him.

"Hand it over."

"Hand over... what?"

"The camera. You're not seriously thinking ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of hiding the footage, are you?"

"Wasn't planning on it."

At her instruction, Lee Jaehwan held out the camera. And at the same time he said to her, almost pleading:

"Please... absolutely do not watch the original."

"Ho ho. Sounds like you had a horrific time in there. Just like those two."

The woman was alluding to Kang Taeshik and Han Doyoon.

"Don't worry. Even the originals of those two were only seen by a very select few. You just worry about getting your report written."

"It's not... that I lack the authority. I just don't want to look."

"Is that not the same thing? I'm off. Back to the grind, soldier."

The woman walked away, leaving Lee Jaehwan to his suffering.

A massive conference room. On the table sat a fresh report.

The middle-aged man turned a page of the report.

Two casualties in the first contact. One in the second. No deaths.

And yet the atmosphere in this conference room was heavier than if several bodies had come back.

What was written in the report had silenced everyone.

"Let's summarize."

The Director began.

"Alpha maintains a human appearance. Conversation is possible. The entity can isolate people within a specific space. What was this round's rule again?"

"Agent Lee Jaehwan was required to watch footage of past occupants and write a review of it."

From one corner of the conference room came the sound of someone's dry cough. The Director pretended not to hear and continued.

"The escape reward?"

"An ability that forces a target to answer truthfully when questioned. However, the target may refuse to answer the question itself."

"A dangerous ability."

The Director pressed his temples.

Alpha did not kill people. Not so far. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠But it pierced—precisely, deliberately—things like human dignity and emotion. And as compensation, it paid out considerable power.

"Registering the entity's official designation."

As the Director declared in a grim voice, a document appeared on the conference room screen.

The Director stared at the identification number, then spoke in a low voice.

"Assessment Pending."

"Insufficient information, sir."

"So we throw more people in?"

No one answered. The Director closed the report.

"Every agent's life is an asset of the state. We can't keep sending them off for nothing. We drop bait on the outside."

"Where to, sir?"

An analyst asked matter-of-factly.

"Alpha grants anomalous ability rewards to those who escape. That single fact alone will have the corporations swarming. Feed the domestic companies just the basics—humanoid, anomalous space, and rewards."

"Provoking Alpha could escalate the damage, sir."

The Director declared in response to that objection:

"Better than feeding it agents forever. Until we find out what Alpha actually wants, there's no reason for us to take the loss first."

That night. A high-rise building in the heart of the city.

Inside a conference room, a man in a suit was leafing through a file. The document's source was the Anomaly Response Service—material that had been covertly passed to the corporate side.

In the photograph was a young man, snickering. Ordinary clothes. An ordinary face. But the text written beneath it was anything but ordinary.

The man read the final page of the file and said nothing for a long while.

Grants anomalous abilities.

The man closed the file.

"Find Alpha's location first."

"Shall we assemble a contact team?"

"No."

He shook his head. The Service's intelligence could be trusted, but corporations were no fools either.

"First, we confirm whether Ax-001 actually hands out rewards."

"We'll issue those orders."

"What's the mood downstairs?"

"Everyone's in a frenzy trying to verify it themselves. Shall we impose sanctions?"

"No, let them do as they please. Performance review season is coming up, after all."

"Understood, sir."