Chapter 41
Chapter 41
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 41
Chapter Title: Management Bureau with Lights Out #1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Gaaah! Eek!"
I fell into a panic from the sudden death. My head got yanked off? The sensation of my neck bones snapping rang vividly through me, making nausea surge up. I flailed around trying to reattach my head.
"My head!"
Of course, my head was still attached... Realizing that, I felt a wave of doubt.
What the hell was that?
Spandal had been giving me a perfectly normal rundown of basic Containment Team duties. I hadn't made any mistakes. Neither with the Tooth Tree nor the Tooth Fairy. I'd handled everything flawlessly, showing off my skills.
Then suddenly, Spandal's head popped out of the gift box the Tooth Fairy gave me, and the headless Spandal body ripped my head off.
"Cough, cough!"
As I coughed and felt terror hit me again at the fact that I'd died once more, a voice rang out.
"You okay? What's wrong?"
"Huh...?"
I looked up to see Spandal's face.
We hadn't known each other long, but it was that same expression I'd seen over and over. A sly look that seemed like a smile but hid something underneath.
"..."
What the fuck is this bitch...?
What the hell is this woman!
Not just some quirky senior, but something suspicious? Since when? An anomaly? Did I suddenly get caught in one? If so, when? Did it get me? Or did the senior get hit first and kill me?
Dangerous.
Whatever it was, being around this woman was dangerous. I had to escape or report this right now. That's what I thought as I scanned for escape routes.
But.
"Th-this place."
This was the Management Bureau's underground isolation area.
Spandal and I were in the elevator. We'd regressed right to the moment the doors opened and I was about to step out.
No escape routes.
Except taking the elevator up.
"Senior. Hold on. Let's go up to the upper floors."
I reached for the floor buttons.
Whoosh.
Spandal grabbed my wrist.
Then she leaned in close and said,
"Why'd you suddenly scream and thrash around like that?"
"...Senior Spandal."
"Spill it."
That was...!
"Why'd you do that? Huh? Got some secret you can't tell? Huh? You do. Wanna tell just me? Your kind senior. Tell me your secret. Huh? What do you know?"
The hand gripping my wrist moved to my head.
"Does this brain hold the secret?"
"Fuck!"
I shook off Spandal and kicked off the ground.
If there were no escape routes, I'd just make one.
"Grong. Where you going? Don't you like your senior's teachings? You gotta learn isolation duties."
"Shut up, you monster bitch!"
"Today's lesson is Tooth Tree and Tooth Fairy duties. Not interested? We gotta collect tons of teeth, make dentures, supply them to dentists. That's how the Management Bureau gets funding. Crime dramas with serial killings use real teeth for that."
"Shut up!"
I didn't know where it went wrong.
But staying here panicking would just rack up my Death Count.
No way, no way was I letting my Death Count go up!
That alone cost 2,000 points—fuck no, not dying again!
Thud thud thud!
I ran down the pitch-black corridor without a single light. It was so dark I could barely make anything out. And weird noises echoed from all sides.
-Haaaahhh!!!
-Ahh... Ahh... Ahh.
The monsters' eerie howls.
And even human voices.
-Excuse me. Let me out, please.
-Geunhong! Geunhong! I'm in here!
-Aaaah! Help! Help! Help meeee!
Hallucinations? I glanced left and right as I ran. Isolation room doors lined the corridor walls, and the sounds came from inside them. Were there people in there screaming? Or was I being consumed by an anomaly, hearing things?
Whirrrrr!
Clank clank!
Sharp mechanical whirring, followed by horrific screams and the gut-wrenching roar of flesh tearing... People were dying in there!
People were being tortured to death inside those isolation rooms!
"Huff, huff!"
Terror flooded my brain.
What the hell was this place?
Was this even the Management Bureau's isolation area?
This was a hellhole for torturing people!
I had no idea where I was.
The dark corridor stretched on endlessly.
That's when it happened.
Ding.
Thud thud thud!
A door ahead flew open, and a swarm of Tooth Fairies poured out. A horde of horrific toothed monsters flew straight at me.
-Emergency situation.
-Emergency situation.
-Emergency situation.
Hearing the siren, I screamed.
"No!"
If those things got me, I'd die a hundred percent! Not just die—I'd be torn apart alive, every scrap of flesh ripped off, every bone gnawed clean!
I'd only been alive a few minutes—no way was I dying like that again...!
Whoosh!
I spun around and bolted.
"What the fuck is happeningggg!"
Why was this happening?
I'd planned to relax in the safe haven of the Management Bureau and take out anomalies at my leisure.
Careless.
The world didn't stop having anomalies just because I joined the Management Bureau!
I hated myself for letting my guard down!
Thud thud thud!
"Stop chasing me!"
The Tooth Fairies were right on my tail. I couldn't get torn apart alive. Even in terror, I kept moving for survival, and soon spotted an open door.
An isolation room door.
"Inside...!"
Should I go in? It was a double door—if the inner one hadn't opened, I could hide. Plus, if it was open, whatever was inside had probably already left.
Either way, running like this would get me caught by the Tooth Fairies. After a split-second decision, I dove inside like it was a gamble.
And slammed the door shut.
Bang bang bang!
The Tooth Fairies pounded the door like maniacs. Crashing into it? I backed away, checking if the door held.
"Huff, huff...! It won't open!"
Scratching sounds came, but the door stayed shut. I confirmed the double door was sealed and collapsed to the floor.
"Huff, huff...!"
My heart pounded like it would burst. Fear and chaos gnawed at my brain. Honestly, this level of terror hadn't hit since the hospital.
I'd been with an experienced senior in the safe Management Bureau, and suddenly bam—an anomaly. The drop was too steep.
"What now... No, can this even be fixed?"
Calming my fear, I assessed the situation.
No idea why or how. It happened suddenly, I died. Now this. Zero info. I tried activating my detection skills, but nothing popped up.
To solve it, I'd probably have to die and do something. That's how my abilities worked. Figure it out through deaths from the start.
But.
"Die again...?"
No way.
One death was 2,000 points...!
And who knows what penalties come with more—no fucking way!
This felt so malicious. Like something was herding me to up my Death Count.
"Urk, ugh! Th-there...!"
Clutching my head, I heard a voice from the inner double door.
It sounded human. I cursed inwardly. Another anomaly in the isolation room.
"Th-there! Is someone there!"
"What...?"
Terror-filled.
A real human scream.
"..."
Confusion hit.
"If you're there, open it please...! No time!"
If.
If this was me before unlocking the Status Window.
I'd have opened the door without hesitation to get info. But now, I couldn't be reckless.
Whatever was inside... rationally, high chance it was the "pretend to be human to get the door opened" type of anomaly.
"I know you're there! Open it! Open it! Hurry!"
Screams from the inner door.
Thud thud thud!
Tooth Fairies raging at the outer door. And that wasn't all. More anomalies... and even off-kilter Senior Spandal might show up.
That'd be game over.
Maybe better to check inside.
"Hold on."
What if that's a trap too?
Now that I thought about it, this specific door being open was suspicious. What if whatever's inside caused this? Made this anomaly to lure me to open it?
Nothing certain, all vague. Felt like the whole world was deceiving me.
Thud thud!
But I was being forced to choose.
"Grong. Why'd you go in alone? Hurry and open up. Reattach my head."
"Fuck!"
No time to agonize. The moment I heard Senior Spandal's voice outside, I chose to open the inner door. If that monster tried something, my head would just get yanked off again.
Ding.
The door opened, revealing someone in the pitch-dark room's center.
A man bound to a chair.
Black suit, sunglasses.
Like.
A fake Management Bureau agent.
"You...?"
The suited man looked up at me.
"N-not in the database, you, you! You're a new Management Bureau recruit! Right!"
How'd he know that?
Staring at him, he continued.
"You haven't been with this Management Bureau long...! Snap out of it! No time! Last chance! This is the fake Management Bureau! You joined the fake one!"
"What?"
What the hell?
"Untie this now! I'm a real Management Bureau agent! We gotta fix this! Hurry!"
The suited man thrashed, but the restraints just rattled.
Fear and chaos—chaos ramped up.
"You're a real Management Bureau agent?"
"Yeah! No time to explain! Untie me now!"
No time to judge, no evidence.
I racked my brain, calculating fast.
"Then answer this."
To gauge the truth, I asked.
"Do you know Section Chief Lee Do-hyung?"