I'll Protect My Own Employees
A new type of entity discovered!
This time, a puppy!
Perfect timing, honestly.
I'd been wanting a pet for ages.
And without me around, Mom would get lonely all by herself.
Adopting a dog would be just the thing.
"Mom! I'm home! Mom? Mom?"
One precious vacation day, deleted.
I'd spent it with a full heart, all for the sake of adopting a dog.
"Huh?"
Why was nobody home?
It was 11:32 p.m.
Mom being out at this hour was weird.
"Boss? Aren't we leaving?"
"Ah, Kuku. It's just… I can't find Mom."
"Your mother, Boss? Hmm… Boss."
"Yeah? What is it all of a sudden?"
"There's someone outside the house. They're not coming in — just pacing in front of the front door."
"…"
A chill ran straight down my spine.
"Kuku. Bring them in."
"Yes."
Bang!
Kuku kicked the front door open and shot outside, then hauled the man who'd been loitering in front of our place inside.
"Aaaagh! Aaaaaagh! Wait, please!!! S-spare me!!!"
"Boss, I've brought him. What should we do? Start by cutting off a finger?"
"Wha—!? No, we should at least ask who he is first! Why would you cut off a finger!?"
Was he insane!? We didn't even know if this guy was a criminal, and he wanted to start by chopping fingers!?
"You heard that. The boss is asking who you are. Answer properly. Lie, and I'll cut off your fingers one by one."
"Kuku. Do you just… want to cut something?"
"…"
Why couldn't he answer that!?
This guy just had an itch for torture!
No — this wasn't the time. I needed to figure out who this bastard was first!
"Who are you, pacing around in front of someone else's house like that? Looking all suspicious. I'm already extremely on edge right now, you know? You got a death wish?"
"N-no, ma'am! I'm not a suspicious person — I'm Gu Gitae, from the Korean Tower Management Bureau! H-here's my government ID!"
"The Tower Management Bureau? It's real? This isn't a forgery?"
"I swear on the heavens it's not a forgery — it's genuine! I-I can even put you on the phone with the Director!"
Why was a Tower Management Bureau employee hanging around outside my house?
Had these bastards sold out to China or America and started scheming behind my back?
I was sure Hyeji had delivered my letter.
And Kuku and Popo would have gone over separately to warn them not to mess with me.
No — more importantly, where the hell was Mom?
"I was waiting to meet the Manager!"
"Huh? Why?"
"W-well, there are things I need to inform you of regarding your family… I've been waiting for two days… But who are you? I know the person in the mask is a colleague of the Basement Manager, but I've never heard anything about a young girl…"
Who am I??!
You don't know who I am?
I'm the famous Basement Manager!
The god of Tower normalization.
The superstar of the Constellations.
The most famous Korean of the twenty-first century.
"It's me. The Basement Manager."
"Whaaaat—!?"
Ah — no, if you react with that much shock, even I get a little awkward…
Is it really that surprising?
"Th-that can't be… I distinctly heard the Basement Manager was a man… Th-the profile picture was of a burly guy…"
"Yeah. That was me."
"….?????"
What. What's with that face.
You gonna un-scrunch that expression or what?
"Here. Take a good look."
"This is…"
◈ Certifies the holder's qualifications as Manager!
◈ The absolute authority of the Basement! Amazing!
"Huuuuh!? I-is this for real!? Holy crap…! It's a Lost Item…!"
"Well? Getting it now?"
"I-I'm so sorry for not recognizing you, Manager! I respect you deeply!"
Ahh. That's more like it.
Look at that attitude shift.
A guy who'd been terrified out of his mind because of Kuku just moments ago was suddenly overflowing with infinite reverence and awe.
Was this the power of a major corporation?
Get a job in the Tower and even Tower Management Bureau employees start bowing at a ninety-degree angle!
"So where did my mom go? You said you came about family business. If she's been kidnapped, I'm leveling the entire Bureau."
"N-no, ma'am! It's nothing like that — I was told your mother left you a text message. Have you not checked it yet?"
"Huh? A text? Ah…"
The basement was a dead zone for calls and had no internet, so I never knew when texts came in.
There was nothing to do down there except browse galleries, after all.
Even if someone contacted me, I basically had to leave the Tower to check.
"Oh, there it is."
Anyway the Bureau people said we have to move~~ so Mom went ahead in a hurry~~~~
They said they'll send the stuff later and the amenities here are INSANE~~~ Mom's living large thanks to my kid~ Thank you~~~ Love you my baby~~♡
Packed full of the tilde marks that were the hallmark of middle-aged texting.
Yep. This was definitely from my mom.
"Hello? Mom?"
"Yes~ my daughter, you're out now? You checked the text~!"
"Yeah, yeah. Where are you?"
"I'm at an apartment called Cheongdam The Demian Noblesse Central Sky Park, and it's amazing! You should come see it soon. There's a Han River view, a dedicated security team you can call anytime twenty-four hours a day, and in the basement of the building there's a pool and a hot spring and every facility you can think of. The community center connects all the way to the subway and a department store so you can get anywhere in ten minutes? Isn't that great? And they furnished everything so we don't even need to buy new furniture. Oh, right — there's a personal chauffeur and a housekeeper who comes twice a week to clean."
Stop. Stop!!!
Too much information at once and I couldn't handle it!
"Yeah, yeah, Mom. Got it. Glad you're doing well. I'm a little busy right now. Gotta go."
"Oh, okay~ Mom's reaping so many benefits thanks to my kid! Fighting, Cheonwoo~~"
"Yeah, yeah. Love you. Okay."
Click.
Whew. If I'd left her going, she would've talked for an hour, two hours, nonstop.
If I hadn't cut her off midstream, I'd have been stuck chatting until my ears bled.
But seriously — where the hell was Cheongdam The Demian Noblesse Central Sky Park?
For an apartment, that name was longer than a European noble's title!
Why were all Korean apartment names like this?
This needed normalizing too, for real.
What kind of apartment name was over sixteen characters long?
Even magic incantations weren't this long.
"I roughly get the situation, but why did my mom suddenly move?"
"Ah, well. As you know, Manager, multiple countries have been targeting you. And there was also an incident where your name was leaked…"
They could pinpoint our house from just a name?
Of course they could.
Japan's shrine maidens, the West's holy maidens — climbers with revelation or oracle skills were experts at digging up secrets.
So the Tower Management Bureau had anticipated that Mom would absolutely be targeted, pulled her out in advance, and parked her in a top-tier facility under intensive protection.
……What the hell!
These people were actually good at their jobs!?
Was this the same corrupt Tower Management Bureau I knew?
The same loser Bureau that constantly leaked hunters' personal data and spent all day fretting over the opinions of Tower superpowers?
After I sent entities over for continuous complaint-terrorism, they'd gotten insanely competent!
Ahh. Even the Tower Management Bureau had been normalized.
"The family of your close friend Lee Hyeji also finished moving just yesterday. Intensive care and personal protection for Climber Lee Hyeji are also being provided."
"Aha. Good, good. Please look after Nadim too — the one who just became a Subordinate."
"Of course we've already made contact. If Nadim's family members wish to naturalize, we plan to assist them accordingly, Manager."
"Wow. What is this. Why are you so good at your jobs. Are you sure you're the Bureau?"
"We are the Bureau."
Hyeji had apparently been solo-clearing the Tower up to the twentieth floor and hadn't been able to come home recently.
That was why the news had been delayed.
And they'd already started looking after Nadim on their own.
The response was so immediate and fast I couldn't even adjust!
The Korean Tower Management Bureau was fully locked onto me.
I liked that.
"But. Is foreign interference that severe?"
"Yes… the situation isn't great. In particular, an anti-basement faction centered on Seekers deeply tied to Constellations seems to be scheming ways into Korea… The authorities are paying close attention, but we still can't fully block hunters with stealth skills from slipping in illegally. That's why we prioritized protecting your family members."
An anti-basement faction trying to eliminate the basement!?
A club for people who hated the basement that much…!?
Terrifying.
I couldn't even gauge how much they despised the place, and it made me break out in a cold sweat.
"…Understood for now. Prepare a car."
"Yes. We'll head straight to your mother…"
"No? We're going to Ansan?"
"Pardon? Ansan? At this hour, all of a sudden?"
Yep. I had to go pick up a dog.
It was already pretty late.
And they said our puppy was sick.
If I wanted to get to a twenty-four-hour animal hospital fast, I needed to head to Ansan right now.
"Danwon District, Ansan. There's an abandoned motel we need to go to. Immediately."
"Ah, understood. I'll call a security detail at once. And just so you know in advance — there will be no risk of your information leaking outside."
"No, no. Just drive us yourself."
"Pardon? But the security team…"
"Even if the whole security team shows up, they couldn't beat this one."
"….Ah."
"It's a waste of manpower and a waste of time. Just file a rough report and let's go. I want to leave right now. Something… feels off."
Security detail, my ass — they couldn't even handle one red mask!
If things got truly dangerous, I could just cancel my vacation and run back to the basement.
More than anything, I didn't want too many people seeing my real face!
It was embarrassing…
"Understood. Let's depart at once."
We climbed into a black sedan.
And headed straight for Danwon District, Ansan.
An abandoned motel somewhere in Danwon District, Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.
From inside the long-neglected building came the sound of a dog crying.
Someone stepped toward the source of that noise, struck the ground with a staff to seal off every sound that might leak outside, and began chanting a sacred mantra at the two spirits in the motel's basement.
"Ghk…!"
"Whine…"
At the recitation of his mantra, the two spirits thrashed as if seized by convulsions of agony.
At last the dog-shaped one foamed at the mouth, collapsed, and lost consciousness completely.
"You… how do you know that chant…"
"Oh-ho. So you can withstand this. The strongest presence I've seen in some time."
"Urgh…. Stop…!"
With a frail human body, capturing the basement's horrors was impossible.
Even Rankers who walked the fiftieth floor of the Tower couldn't put a scratch on an entity's body.
The species specifications were simply different.
Approaching them with the mindset of killing a living creature got you nowhere.
Therefore, for a human to capture a horror, specialized techniques and methods were required.
And this man was one who had climbed the Tower, acquired those techniques and methods, and returned to the outside world.
A class specialized in hunting and capturing the uncanny: the Exorcist.
Agents that certain Constellations had secretly created and deployed to eliminate or recruit entities outside the Tower.
Their numbers were vanishingly small, and their existence was barely known to the world.
Obtaining information on Exorcists was nearly impossible unless they revealed themselves.
"Om somani somani hum batak savaha. Vanish, O wicked thing."
As the man began chanting the mantra again, the horror that had been about to wring his neck took two steps back.
"Ugh…"
"You've eaten quite a few humans."
"For survival… we had no choice… We… we ate to live… And we tried to minimize the harm… We only chose those who deserved to die…"
"You presume to weigh human sins on your own scales and sort them? A hypocritical, vile excuse. And that you can only live by eating people is an undeniable truth. Your very existence is the product of vice. So stop thrashing. Vanish and be extinguished."
"By that logic…! Aren't the criminals who kidnapped people here and slaughtered them mercilessly the ones who truly deserve to die!?"
"Silence! Uncanny thing!"
She tried to struggle — but her opponent knew how to counter entities.
If this had been the Tower's basement, things would have been different.
Unfortunately, this was merely the underground storage of an abandoned motel.
"Why… why don't we even have the right to survive…"
"You ask the obvious. Because your very birth was a mistake."
"What…?"
"I mean a problem at the root of your existence. You were beings that should never have been born."
Was that truly so?
Was birth itself truly the problem?
They had opened their eyes and found themselves in the basement.
They had devoted their entire lives to guarding and protecting the basement, raising young entities, living as if in service.
Then they opened their eyes again and found themselves cast out of the Tower without so much as a word of notice.
Countless siblings had wandered, starving and thirsting, and died gasping.
And so the method they found was to eat the souls of living humans.
It wasn't that they had wanted to eat.
It was thrashing for survival.
Living the rest of their lives in hiding so as not to be discovered.
Barely finding and devouring only the most sinful humans.
Living below beggars, deeper still, holding their breath.
If someone was to be held accountable for sin —
Shouldn't it be the ones who had driven them out of the Tower while they were living just fine?
"We… why are we…"
Grief welled up.
Now they were being told that being born itself was wrong.
She didn't want to admit it —
But his words felt true.
Felt like genuine truth, and that made her sad.
"Sinful, fleeting thing. Cease your harm and vanish for eternity. Worthless existence — be extinguished."
The eight-foot ghost braced for the coming blow — but the three-eyed dog behind her would surely die.
In the end, she had failed to protect them again, and she despaired.
And in that moment —
"Who the hell do you think you are, rating my employees' worth!! Performance reviews are my job alone, you damn bald-headed monk."
A shaft of light seeped into the pitch-dark underground storage of the abandoned motel, accompanied by vulgar curses.
The Exorcist reeled in shock.
A being that could not be distinguished as human or horror.
One straddling the boundary between this world and the next.
A figure standing at the border of basement and surface.
"What in the world are you… Are you truly human…!?"
"Gitae! That bastard's eyes look wrong!! Shoot him already! He's clearly a threat to the basement!"
"What!? Uh… d-do I really shoot…!?"
"What are you doing! Shoot! That's a climber who hunts entities! We're all going to die at this rate!"
"Aah..!"
BANG—!!!
BANG—!!!
The first shot was a blank.
From the second, live rounds.
"Gyaaaaagh!!!"
With two gunshots, the Exorcist clutched his side and crumpled.
No matter how good he was at catching horrors, he was still only human.
An Exorcist specialized in hunting the uncanny was utterly helpless before a gun.
Exorcists beat horrors.
Horrors beat guns.
Guns beat Exorcists — a circular rock-paper-scissors of matchups!
Truly rock-paper-scissors!
"Whew. See that? I protect my own employees! And Popo — don't hang your head! You're this month's outstanding employee."
"Miss..!"
"Boss, that was so cool!"
Gu Gitae had fired the gun.
But the Basement Manager took all the credit.